The Rise of a Mandalorian
by Major of the Letztes Bataillon
Summary: A story of a Clone becoming who he was meant to be, takes place during the clone wars where and ARC Trooper known as Alpha-84 embarks on a mission with a Jedi Knight its an OC story but you will see characters from the Star Wars universe. Please leave reviews I always learn from them and they make writing all this worthwhile.
1. Prologue

**First star wars story 100% OC character every chapter will go through a period of time in the characters life for the most part please read and review.**

**i dont own starwards George Lucas did until he sold it to Disney, i hope that isnt a mistake.  
**

The sound of drizzling rain filled his ears, it poured on and on and on it felt like his body was being pelted with pebbles, he could hear every drop pond his body and wondered if anyone had died from the pounding of rain alone.

He quickly dismissed the question from his mind; it was completely irrelevant the rain would not kill him.

He strained his ears trying to catch the sounds of the jungle trying to listen past the rain and catch the cries of the many colorful birds.

He clutched in his hands a makeshift club forged from a fresh tree branch a stone lashed on its head with long grass he had found in the exotic jungle.

Despite the haste in which he had made the weapon he couldn't help but admire how well he had managed to last the stone, the weapon had taken him little more than an hour to create.

The distinct sound of rain hitting water could caught his attention; he didn't even need to question what could possibly be passing him by.

The black T visor was the first thing that he spotted emerging from the trees, the visor of a Mandalorian warrior.

The red blaster bolt streaked past his ear and hit a tree burning a section off the trunk sizzled as it was pounded with rain.

He charged and swung his club at his armored enemy trying the knock the blaster out of his enemy's hand, the armored opponent rolled away from the strike taking a knee and continuing to fire off his blaster, he scrambled behind a tree taking cover from the coming fire.

He moved from tree to tree trying to keep out of his enemies sights; he concealed himself behind a bush looking through the leaves and watched as the dull steel armor showed itself to him, he jumped from the bush brandishing his stone club.

The blaster snapped to him but be ducked the shot and swung the club knocking the blaster his opponents grip.

Not waiting for another opportunity he shot his left hand out to grab the helmet, the armored glove snatched his hand only inches away from the visor, the hand gripped his wet fingers like a vice, the man squeezed, a cry of pain escaped his lips as his fingers were painfully squeezed, in a final act to free himself he swung his free hand hold the club at the Mandaloran's helmet the stone head contacted and shattered as if made of glass, deadly shards of stone flew everywhere and bit into his skin, a cut traced a path across his face just above his left eye sending a stream of blood and rain into his eye.

He raised his broken club again to swing but his opponents hand caught his wrist.

"It's over trooper." An electronic voice synthesizer said from under the helmet, "End simulation."

As the voice commanded the rain immediately stopped and the overhead lights turned on basking the artificial jungle in ultraviolet light.

The man in front of released his hand, and removed his rain pattered helmet, he looked down on him with his dark brown eyes, there was something about his eyes, always his, his brothers never had that stair, they thought they would, they were nothing more than clones of the man that stood before them, nothing more than copies of the great Jango Fett.

"What's your number trooper?"

"Alpha-84" he said clutching his fingers his face wet with rain and blood.

"Well 84 it seems you lost."

"You were supposed to be unarmed." 84 said in defense, you were supposed to have nothing but your armor."

Fett chuckled at that, "And you weren't supposed to have any kind of weapon, but you made yourself a club, Intel isn't always correct trooper, don't rely on it or you'll wind up dead, now tell me why you lost."

"You took me by surprise, and I assumed you were unarmed." Said 84.

"No, you lost because you didn't think, I found you and you rushed into a fight you had no advantage in, and when I caught you in a grip you panicked and attacked my heavily armored helmet instead of trying to trip me or injure my lightly armored legs."

Fett sighed and looked the young trooper up and down, "Head off to medical, get your hand fixed, don't tell your brothers that I have a blaster."

84 turned and left when Fett called out to him again, "Tell the medical droids to leave that cut above your eye alone, a scar will do you good."

Fett returned his helmet to his head, "Don't think I won't notice 84, I've got your number."

It didn't take long for 84 to find the door out of the artificial jungle, outside waited a number of cadets waiting for their turn to try and remove Fett's helmet.

"Hey 84 I see you lost your good looks." One of the cadets mocked.

84 smirked, he wondered how many of the cadets would be scarred from Fett's blaster they were told he didn't have today Fett had never played that trick on them before.

The tasteless food remained untouched on 84's tray, the sky outside remained the same dull leaden color as always, he hated Kamino its constant cold rain and storms were far from his idea of beauty, if there really were worlds like the simulation rooms he hopped to see them soon.

The lush plant life and warm humid climate of the jungle was his favorite, the room managed to create a living eco system much like an Ithorian heard ship.

The rest of the ARC Troopers sat together in the mess well away from the other clones, although they were brothers both sides seemed happy to remain separate and keep to themselves, a sort of 'sibling rivalry' in a way, a rivalry of 100,000 trying to chase Fett's shadow.

84 took a bite of the bland ration bar in front of him, smirking to himself the 100 troopers the Advance Recon Commando's currently carried that tidal, they were the closest to the original no injections made them docile like the rest of troopers that filled the mess.

"Hey 84," trooper 67 said as he took a seat beside him, "I see Fett broke your hand, what did you do punch him square in the armor?"

"Tried making a grab for his hemlet, only a di'kut like you would try making a move like that." 84 looked at the splint on his hands and forearm, either Fett had stomped it or he really did try punching a Mandalorian straight in the armor.

"Least he didn't stun you." 84 said taking a bite into his fruit.

"Well you see, it was set low," 67 lifted his shirt displaying three small red burns, "but not as low as stun."

84 burst out laughing along with 67 others that were there that day joined in getting the joke, across the room 84 could see the other trooper's eyeing them across the room confused looks upon their faces; they didn't get it, these scars were their marks of honor a mark of Fett's training.

84 looked and watched as the sight of Slave 1 streaked across the cloudy rain filled sky wondering where Fett was off to, and when he would be back to continue their training.


	2. Evaluation

The sunny skies of Coruscant were alive with the thousands of speeders moving across the sky, greatly different from the gloomily rain of Kamino, the council chamber of the Jedi temple was full of empty chairs, across from him sat jedi master Mace Windu and Yoda.

84 saluted, "Alpha-84 reporting for duty generals."

"At ease trooper," said General Windu, "just a simple evaluation."

"Confidence I sense in you," said Jedi master Yoda, "Eager for your next assignment hmm?"

84 frowned from under his helmet, the Advanced Recon Armor hid his face well but not from the jedi, he never liked how they always knew what he was feeling.

"You think you can perform this mission better most?" said master Windu responding to Yoda's comment."

"Sir" said 84, "I am merely more comfortable depending on the man I know best, which is myself."

A light chuckle sounded from master Yoda, "seems true it does, your file we have read, exceptional battle skill you possess."

"Thank you sir" Said 84. "Permission to speak freely sir?"

"Permission granted sergeant." Said Windu resting his chin on his hand.

"I don't think my file speaks fairly of my abilities sir." Said 84 looking into the jedi's eyes through the visor.

"Speak of the many reprimands you have received, master Salk spoke very ill of your actions on Jabiim he did, shortly before her death." Yoda shook his head, "Most tragic, I believe you were their when she died."

"Yes, I was wounded by the droid sniper that took his life; I also injured myself attempting to carry him to safety, unfortunately I had to leave him behind and begin and see the rest of the troops to safety and carry out Skywalkers orders to retreat, I spent three days in a bacta tank afterwards."

"In your report" began Master Windu with a hint of curiosity, "you said you took possession of Master Salk's lightsabre to fight droids after he had been mortally wounded, you claim to have destroyed forty three droids before being declared unfit for combat by your field medic who stated you were lucky you didn't take your own head with it then you gave the weapon to Salk's young padwan after the retreat."

"My DC-15 rife was inoperable and I needed a weapon," Explained 84, "ammo and weapons were low, I'm not sure my squad would be alive if I didn't use his weapon."

"I see, so despite his reprimands you carried him upon his back and defended him with his own lightsabre until his last breath and you were too wounded to fight."

"My disagreements with Commander Salk did not keep me from my duties to defend a superior officer."

"Ordered you to leave him he did disobey and carried his body to safety" Said Master Yoda.

"He was declared unfit to lead and I the highest ranking clone their it was my decision to carry him was my decision as squad leader."

"I see" said Windu in a rather frank tone, "so tell me why you had such trouble following Master Salk's order?"

"With respect General's I don't think having a lightsabre at your hip makes someone qualified to lead men into battle, I found Master Salk to be a very poor leader with little regard for the advice of his subordinates or the lives of his men."

"Feel this way with most jedi does you?" asked master Yoda.

84 removed his helmet, the jedi's eyes flickered across his face brushing over his short Mohawk and the scar Fett had given him, he looked the small green alien in the eyes as he spoke, "No sir, I have been very pleased to work under General Skywalkers and Kenobi, I assure you I have never had issue with jedi in command."

"Very well you are dismissed."

"Sir" 84 saluted and returned the helmet to his head stepping out of the council chamber.

"Strong sense of independence I sense in him, very capable very perceptive." Said Yoda pushing a button on his chair bringing up a holo-recording of an ARC trooper cutting down battle droids with a lightsabre, a brown robed jedi slung over his shoulder.

"He seems very protective of a man he hated" said Windu.

"Willing to put personal feelings aside he is to accomplish what is right" Said Yoda.

"Also willing to disobey direct orders" observed Windu watching the ACR trooper drag a clone to safety the jedi still slung over his shoulder the lightsabre in hand.

"Recommend him I do" said Yoda, "loyal he is to fellow soldiers, his mind focused on the objective but mindful of its path and the orders he is given."

Windu raised an eyebrow, "You think he is the best one suited to this job do you?"

Yoda smirked, "I do."

Windu looked again to the hologram watching as three droids were decapitated with a single swing of the lightsabre still clutched in Alpha-84's hands.

"Most impressive" he commented, "even for a jedi it's hard to believe he carried him so far."

"Determined he was to save his comrade, almost succeeded he did, observe him closely we should, great potential I see."

"We will brief him tomorrow." Said Windu stepping out of the council chamber.


	3. Depature

84 stood in the empty briefing room his helmet tucked under his arm waiting for the arrival of the jedi, he turned his helmet over looking into it seeing the HUD to check the time.

Late by five minute now, as he had suspected, the relaxing quiet of Coruscant always seemed to put people into a rather lax state of mind allowing time to seem rather unimportant.

The door opened behind him, in walked General Windu followed by an young olive green skinned Twi'lek dressed in the customary brown jedi robes he had become all too used to.

"84 meet Tara Lesen your partner on this mission and one of our newest jedi knights" Said Windu

"Hello" she said looking him up and down, she stretched out her hand for him to shake 84 reached out and gently squeezed her hand and shook.

"I'll let you two get acquainted later, and believe me you two will have time for it."

Tara gracefully sat down upon the cushion pulling up her legs and hugging them to herself ready to Master Windu as the holo-screen turned on.

84 stood standing as a projection of a short bith, large burn marks scared the top of its large dome head a cybernetic implant had replaced its left eye.

84 looked the projection up and down trying to implant the image in his head.

"This is Doctor Breng Ust your target; he's a freelance weapons designer and a separatist specializing in robotics and computer programming" Windu explained, "naturally we would like him taken into custody."

"This is all very interesting sir" said 84, "but why am I here, sounds like something the jedi can handle alone."

"I was getting to that," Said Windu, "we have intelligence to believe that Ust in currently on the outer rim world Bakura, while it has remained to stay neutral to the war it is hardly friendly to the jedi, the majority of the population adhere to the belief in the Cosmic Balance, I won't bother discussing religion with you but the Republic sympathizers on the system are very hesitant sending more than one jedi to their world, that's where you come in 84, The Chancellor doesn't think this is a simple one man job and has requested we send an ARC trooper to aid in his capture."

"Does this mean I'm supposed to keep my status as a jedi a secret?" Asked Tara in an almost disappointed tone, it seemed almost childlike to 84 the way her face pouted when Windu answered.

"I would certainly advise it Tara, it would seem prudent to leave your robes behind, though I suggest you keep your lightsabre close and report in often, 84 you are in command on this one, Tara you in command."

The green skinned jedi smiled at him, "I guess that makes you my responsibility."

The joke didn't amuse him, he knew the jedi would have authority on this mission but he hoped he would be paired with an older more experienced jedi not a young woman who only recently became a jedi a lightsabre really could purchase a rank in this war.

"As soon as you get a whiff of Ust's scent keep on his trail, I don't care if you have to fly across the galaxy, his designs in droids are hurtful to us, if you take him alive do so but dead is acceptable, your ship is waiting."

84 saluted, "Yes sir" Tara nodded and stood to walk out the door.

The stars outside the cockpit of the ship turned into star lines as 84 sent the ship into hyperspace; he checked the navigation computer one last time and turned out of the cockpit into the lounge area, were Tara was playing a game of Dejarik against the ships computer on the holotable.

The small holo-monsters moved crossed the board and crushed the only monster left to stand against it defeating the young jedi.

"Damn" she said crossing her arms and frowning at the game table, "Stupid computer always wins."

"Doesn't exactly make the computer stupid." Said 84 slumping down on the other empty chair trying to get a feel for the simple civilian clothing he changed into before they left Coruscant, his armor jetpack and DC-15A were stored in the cargo hold, his DC-17 was strapped to his hip along with his combat knife in his boot, he was feeling very exposed outside of his armor.

84 looked over his datapad reviewing the technical details of Ust and the planet Bakura, a small world just on the edge of wild space; it would be a few days of hyperspace travel before they reached their destination.

"So what's your name?" Tara asked pulling her legs up on the chair and hugging them looking somewhat bored, "Master Windu only gave me your number Alpha -84."

"I don't have one" said 84, "I've always just been known as 84 for short."

"But all the clones I've worked with gave themselves names" she protested, "You don't have any name at all?"

"None I'm just a number ma'am, a clone" Explained 84, "I don't need a name."

"Well clone or not you should have a name, or are you just going to call yourself 84 after the war has ended?"

84 didn't bother answering, that question had never presented itself, his military carrier was all he had ever know or wanted, but eventually this war would end and even if it didn't he would age and someday be labeled unfit for duty, civilian life didn't appeal to him at all and a number wouldn't help him adapt.

"Do you mind if I think up a name for you?" she asked.

"If you think it will help us work better then go ahead." Said 84

"Hmm, I've never named anyone before" said the green Twi'lek sitting back in her chair her head tails hanging over the back and her emerald eyes looking at the ceiling her think pink lips pressed together in concentration, if it wasn't for the two lightsabre at her hips 84 would have never thought she was a jedi, her energetic and almost innocent disposition wasn't something he was used to seeing in most jedi.

Tara remained silent trying to think of a name for him for a few hours remaining everything but still, she changed position constantly in her seat as if no matter how she sat within it she would never be comfortable in any single position.

"This is harder than I thought" said Tara sitting up from her chair and stretching out clearly frustrated, "this could take a while."

"Take as much time as you need" said 84 indifferently never looking up from his data pad, he would be stuck in this ship for days with her keeping her focused on something like a name would help those days pass by that much faster.

"Ok" she said not seeming to notice the indifference in his voice or simply not caring.

The holotable was switched on again by her and the hours passed by as she played a few more games of Dejarik, 84 half watched the games occasionally looking over his data pad to the game table, she managed to beat the computer a couple times before turning the table off again clearly bored.

"How did you get that scar?" she asked rather abruptly after a long moment of silence.

"Which scar?" he responded again not looking up from his data pad.

"The one just above your left eye, running parallel to your eyebrow" she pointed above her left eye just under her brow, "Right there."

"I got that while training on Kamino," said 84.

"What happened?" she asked trying to make conversation.

"I broke a stone club on Fett's helmet, shard cut my eye and he didn't want the medical droid to fix it up, thought I could learn something from a scar."

She lifted an eyebrow, "You were trained by Jango Fett?"

"All of us Alpha-Class ARC troopers were, he chose us to be the best there is, closest to the original."

Tara smirked, "Sounds like you admire him."

84 looked at the young jedi, "You could say that, I'd say most clones think that way, closest thing to a farther in a way."

84 didn't like where the conversation was leading and returned his attention to his data pad, hoping she would let the conversation end their and as he had hoped the ships small lounge drifted into another long period of silence, Tara picked up her own data pad and begun some reading of her own and for a long time before once again she broke the quiet.

"Listen 84," she said rather awkwardly, "before we were briefed Master Windu told me about you."

84 looked up showing her that he was in fact listening, "he told me about your doubts about inexperienced jedi being presented rank in the military, I know I'm inexperienced which is why I'm going to need your help on this mission, and why I would like you to please be more open with me, I feel we would benefit us if we knew more about one another."

"Yes ma'am, I understand."

The Twi'lek pouted, "That doesn't sound very sincere."

"With respect… Tara," he said her name trying to fit her idea of sincerity, "How would you like for me to answer you?"

The jedi's paused to think of an answer when none came she just smirked, "I'll get back to you on that trooper, good night."

"Night ma'am" said 84 and watched the olive skinned jedi walk off to her sleeping quarters.


	4. Cassus

A few days of hyperspace travel passed them by relatively uneventful, 84 was used to long periods of time cramped in a ship during hyperspace travel, though having a squad of troopers to play a hand of sabbic always helped.

Tara was clearly not so used to long periods of confinement; most people weren't used to spending almost a straight week of hyperspace travel, her frequent games of Dejarik were one of the few things she had to ease her boredom, she seemed far too restless to meditate as he was used to seeing the jedi do, often she would activate her lightsabres and train blocking stun rounds from the small training orbs.

84 hung from the celling pulling himself up, exercise was his way of dealing with the long days in hyperspace, he had turned the ships lounge into its own physical work out area for both him and Tara, he watched as the jedi held her two weapons, her eyes covered with a helmet and three small white orbs circled her.

The green and blue blades moved in a very controlled manner remaining as still as possible until the orbs stuck sending out a barrage of stun bolts, the blades moved lighting fast deflecting the bolts with maximum efficiency, no blade moved more than was necessary and soon she had returned to her normal stance ready to intercept another attack from the remote.

84 couldn't help but admire the skill and efficiency of her graceful movements, General Kenobi and General Skywalker would even be hard pressed facing her with lightsabres in hand.

The sound of the weapons humming were the only thing he could hear, he closed his eyes and resumed his pull ups.

Swear trickled down Tara's brow, the training remotes were being especially tricky with her today, all three of them had recorded data of her previous training sessions and were programed to learn from the experiences.

She twirled the weightless blades in her hands reaching out with the force feeling their full length, not just memorizing the length but feeling it by stretching out her focus in the force sensing everything around her, the walls of the ship and of course the three remotes that circled her preparing their next assault, the only sound was the hum of her weapons, Tara always found the sound to be very calming, her master had taught her to focus on that sound, its tranquil sound helped her to block out the distractions outside, allowing her to keep her thoughts focused on the force.

Before the thought to react ever entered her mind her blades whirled into action as the remotes began to fire off their stun shots at her, three four and five and six shots were fired, and she deflected them all in several fluid graceful movements.

She was caught off guard as the sound of a pained groan followed by a loud thud, her concentration broke she missed the seventh bolt which caught in in the side.

"UGH," she groined as she felt her side go numb, she reached to her belt and clicked the switch deactivating the remotes and removing her helmet.

Sprawled on the floor was 84, his right arm looked limp and he was pulling himself off the ground having fallen from the bar he was pulling himself up on, Tara didn't need him to explain what happened, in all her concentration on the remotes she had forgotten about 84 being in the room, she had accidently deflected the stun bolts to him stunning him, and from the way he was unable to stand it was clear he had been hit multiple hits.

"Oh" she said swiftly moving over to help him up, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry that was stupid of me."

84 quietly let her help him up into the chair, "I sorry I lost focus I wasn't thinking."

"It's ok," he said half dazed, "It happens."

"How many hit you?" she asked grabbing a water bottle and handing it to 84.

"Three I think, maybe four I think."

Tara grabbed his hand and felt for the pulse, stun rounds could cause heart palpitations at time, the remotes setting was usually so low it presented little risk of such side effects, but being hit with multiple stun blasts was dangerous.

"I'm ok; just need time for the effects to wear off."

"It looks like they hit you hard" She said looking him over, making sure he was perfectly fine; she tried to ignore the growing heat in her cheeks, and was glad her green skin didn't blush.

"I've had worse." He said bringing the water bottle to his lips, stun round were known for causing dehydration so he would be needing to drink plenty.

"More of Fett's training on Kamino?" she asked trying entertain him as he lay back in the chair stunned, it was suppressing he didn't lose consciousness, the ARC troopers really were made of sturdier stuff.

"You could say that" he said taking another swig of the water bottle.

"You should tell me about it Cassus." She said the hints of a smile curling the corners of her lips.

"Cassus?" he asked looking at her.

"Do you like it?" she asked as grin on her face, "I finally thought up a name for you Cassus."

His eyebrow lifted, "A Mandalorian name?"

Tara nodded, "Most of the clones I know had mandalorian names, I thought Cassus Fett, and thought Cassus would be a good name for you, he is an ancestor of Jango Fett after all."

He mulled the name over in his mind.

"Do you not like it?" she asked, the look in her eyes made him think she would begin crying if he said no, not that he didn't like the name, taken after the great Cassus Fett, who almost led the mandalorians to victory against the Republic, it was the last name he would expect a jedi to think of.

"I like just fine." He said, "I'll use it."

Tara smiled seeming positively giddy that he had accepted the name she had chosen for him, "Great from now on you are Cassus."

He kept saying the name over again his mind trying to get a feel for it, for now on he would know himself as Cassus, the jedi had chosen well.


	5. Bakura cantina

The rain pattered the ship's hull as it touched down on the port of the city Prytis, the rainy planet of Bakura seemed far away from the lush city planet of Coruscant.

"Come on Cassus." said Tara stepping out of the ship, "we have work to do."

He would need time to adjust to using the new name, as far as his reactions dictated his name was 84.

His blaster pistol was hidden under his rain poncho and a small grey hat sat atop his head, that and a little stubble from not shaving the last week helped make his face less recognizable, he knew it wasn't likely that anyone on such a distant planet had seen the face of Jango Fett or his brothers but he didn't like taking chances.

He stepped out into the rainy city, the rain was nothing compared to Kamino, calling it rain almost seemed insulting.

The city of Prytis was far from dreary despite the rain; the citizens didn't seem to mind the drizzle that had befallen the ships computer had talked about how Bakura was known for the constant rain.

He and Tara stepped into the cantina away from the rain and into the meeting place.

Tara grabbed his arm and pulled in close, "What are you doing?" he muttered raising an eyebrow to her.

"It will look more convincing" she whispered, "You can't say you're my brother after all."

Cassus quietly agreed and let her continue to hold his arm as they entered the smoke filled cantina.

The music hummed from the small alien band in the center, Cassus and Tara moved to a boot and took a seat opposite one another.

"How long do we have?" she asked looking around the smoke filled bar watching the many patrons order drinks.

"About ten minutes" Said Cassus, making a scan of the room of his own, his hands remained upon his blaster under his poncho.

He and Tara ordered food and drinks trying to enjoy the sensation of real food over the ration bars they had been eating over the past few days, they sat in silence as they ate keeping their eyes open for their contact.

Ten minutes later their food was gone and no sign of their contact was in sight.

"What should we do?" asked Tara once again scanning the bar.

"I don't think we should linger," said Cassus, "If he isn't here then either he had to abort the meeting or something happened, either way it spells bad news for us."

The jedi nodded and motioned for them to leave, the trooper stood up trying to remain as casual as possible, he waited for the jedi to sit up and waited for her to grab his arm like she did before, and they began to shuffle through the bar

The cramped and crowded bar was rather difficult to move through, the patrons moved past him and her shuffling through to make their way to and from the bar, Cassus kept his free hand on his blaster, men and women moved past him brushing him and Tara as they moved past through.

Suddenly Cassus found himself being yanked back by Tara; with remarkable speed the jedi activated her lightsabre swinging the green blade at the closest man cutting his arm from his body, as the severed limb fell from his body the sight of a small vibroknife clutched in its hands caught his eye, he drew his blaster and turned to cover the rear.

A man at a table drew a pistol seeing the crowd scatter to the jedi's lightsabre; Cassus put a bolt in his chest before he could level the weapon to fire.

Cassus heard Tara activate her second lightsabre almost more of a warning to the rest of the cantina, the warning was unheeded as another man from the crowd pulled a blaster and fired, she easily deflected the bolt harmlessly into the wall as Cassus put him down before he could fire a second bolt.

They both stood back to back in the middle of the cantina, "What do you sense?" Cassus murmured to the young Twi'lek.

"More" she said beginning to make her way to the door Cassus followed her, his blaster remained leveled as he covered her rear.

Six men emerged from the back blaster rifles in hand, Cassus knocked Tara down and shoved her behind the bar taking cover as a barrage of blaster bolts streaked over their heads.

Cassus fired over the bar using it as cover as he quickly sent out another blast killing another one of their attackers.

Sparks pelted his face as a section of the bar was blasted off sending bits of slag everywhere.

"I'll cover you" said Tara motioning towards the top of the bar, Cassus nodded and moved into action once again aiming the blaster over the bar, Tara again activated her lightsabres and hopped on top of the bar her laser swords twirling in graceful arcs and they deflected the countless blaster bolts.

Cassus took aim and let the bolts fly killing two more, as Tara jumped from the bar closing distance on their attackers her lightsabres in constant movement as she deflected the continuous barrage of bolts, shielding both Cassus and herself.

Cassus moved from the bar firing his blaster away trying to pin down his attackers, when the sound of glass breaking underfoot caught his attention.

He turned to see the one armed attacker on his feet wielding the vibroknife in his left hand, he charged the trooper brandishing the knife.

Cassus grabbed the man's wrist holding the knife at bay, he twisted the man's arm and with a snap it was dislocated, the knife fell from the man's grip and clanged on the floor, crippling the man even further he stomped the man's knee snapping his leg backwards, the man cried in pain and dropped down on his own weight further damaging his leg as the broken joint was forced to bend further, bone ripped through flesh and tears streaked down the man's eyes.

Cassus kicked the knife away as an added precaution, and turned back to the battle.

Tara moved through the bar her sabers making graceful arcs, she neared on one of the attackers, in two small efficient moves she had cut down the man and his weapon to move onto the next.

Cassus shot down another as Tara defected a bolt directly back at the man.

The jedi deactivated her lightsabres and moved to the back door, Cassus holstered his pistol and followed her.

They stepped out into the rain of the back alley behind the cantina, "This way," Cassus said taking her hand and running, they would need to put some distance between them and bar before he would feel comfortable making their way back to the ship.

The twisting alleys of the city kept them away from the police droids that were summoned to see the disturbance, they walked the streets trying to appear as casual as possible and hoping the smell of ozone didn't catch anyone's attention.

"We're being followed" she whispered.

"How can you tell?" he asked.

"I can sense him; we have been followed since we left the cantina" she explained.

"To the alley then" he said leading her into the nearest alley and turning to corner, he pulled his blaster and hugged the wall waiting to ambush whoever was stalking them.

A young man dressed in a grey poncho rounded the corner; Cassus grabbed him and threw him against the wall receiving no resistance, with the familiar snap-hiss the twi'lek's lightsabre activated and was millimeters from his throat.

"Why are you following us?" Tara demanded looking the young boy in the eye.

"I was supposed to meet you at the cantina" the boy explained, "I didn't approach you because of the separatists, they were expecting you and brought some bounty hunters along."

"Your name?" asked Tara keeping the blade close.

"Yasir, my name is Yasir."

The name did check in with their contact, Tara lowered the blade and deactivated it, "I believe we should find a more suitable place for this discussion.

Yasir nodded, "I know a place."

"No," said Cassus, "our place this time, your last location didn't work so very well."


	6. Healthy Paranoia

The young man lay back in the chair aboard their ship.

"Start talking" said Cassus folding his arms, "Why weren't you there to meet us? And why was our meeting place compromised?"

"They were separatist sympathizers, I saw them enter into the cantina before me, I knew walking in would only invite a firefight."

"That answers one question "he said, "but how did they know, where we were going to be."

"I don't know, the separatists have spies, if I knew I would have told you."

"You could have tried telling us we were danger instead of waiting for those men to ambush us in the cantina" accused Tara.

Yasir ignored her; he seemed unwilling to speak to her now that a lightsabre wasn't poised at his throat, the warnings about prejudice against the jedi being common on this planet was now becoming very evident.

"I wanted to see how you would handle it" he said to Cassus as it had been him who had asked the question.

"Really?" he said, "because if I didn't know any better I'd say you just didn't want to use that blaster on your hip."

The man sunk in his chair not ever bothering to look offended at being accused of cowardice.

"Now tell us what you know about our target, where is he?" he asked.

"I don't know" he said, "He was staying at the Outer Rim Inn, until a few days ago."

"And you lost him?" growled Cassus.

"He's wanted for murder; two days ago he killed a police officer, a bounty was placed on his head, wanted alive for five thousand credits, dead for half, he's fled and has remained hidden since."

"Do you think he's left the system?" asked Tara.

Yasir again didn't answer her directly, keeping his gaze fixed upon the clone, "His ship was impounded, if he did leave, it wasn't in his ship."

Cassus looked at Tara, "looks like this will be more work than we bargained for."

"One more thing," said Yasir, "We hired a bounty hunter to help us find Ust after he disappeared, he said he would find him for us but he plans to turn him into the proper authorities for the second bounty."

"You what?" growled Cassus.

"The important thing is Ust is apprehended right?" he stammered thinking Cassus was about to knock him to the floor.

"The deal was Ust gets brought back to Coruscant, not be held by the Bakuran authorities were we can't interrogate him."

"And I don't remember having to work with a jedi in our deal" he retorted.

Cassus grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him up to eyelevel, "You agreed to help the Republic in this war, despite your planets neutrality" he roared.

"I agreed to help the Republic clone, not help the jedi's personal agenda."

He whispered clearly trying to sound confident despite the ARC trooper keeping him elevated above the ships floor.

"Put him Cassus" said Tara, resting a hand on his shoulder, "we should take a look at Ust's ship and find a place to stay."

Cassus set the man down, "Where's his ship?"

"Bakura space port, just across town" he answered, "Security droids are crawling over the place."

"We'll take care of that" said Tara.

The man walked away leaving the two alone on the ships lounge, "We should find a place to stay, I don't know about you but I would enjoy a real bed tonight."

In truth Cassus could care less where he stayed tonight but nodded all the same, "I could rest as well."

They walked across town in relative silence, the rain had stopped and the sky was orange with the setting sun illuminating the many clouds, the only sound was humming of speeders as they passed them by.

"You didn't have to pick him up like that you know," Tara said breaking the silence between them.

"I wouldn't have hurt him," he answered.

"He was answering our questions; there was no need to threaten him like that."

"I didn't like his attitude" he replied, "and I don't like it when deals are broken."

"Neither do I Cassus but you don't see me lifting him up with the force, because he won't even look at me."

"I wouldn't blame you if you did" He said turning into an inn.

"Kid could learn some humility."

Before she could respond Cassus turned into the entrance of the nearest inn, "I need a room, with two beds."

Tara plopped down on her bed sighing as she stretched out over the soft mattress, "Nothing like a real bed after days in hyperspace."

Cassus walked over to the window looking out over the dark city illuminated by the many neon lights being reflected through the many raindrops that clung to the glasses surface, their room stood almost twenty stories high as he had requested, too high for anyone to toss a thermal detonator into their room.

He shut the blinds closing the room off from the rest of the planet, and away from prying eyes looking to possibly send a snipe them from one of the many tall buildings.

"Worried about the room?" asked Tara lifting her head from the pillow and looking at him, "We can find another if necessary."

"It won't be" he said sitting on his bed setting his blaster down on the nightstand, "just a little healthy paranoia is all."

"We should eat while we have time; it's going to be awhile until the streets are clear of night goers, we will want to make sure we aren't seen."

He nodded in agreement, "I'll call the front desk for some food to be brought up. What do you want?"

"I think we should eat out for dinner, it will help us blend and get a better idea of the cities layout"

She said pulling herself off of her bed and standing up stretching her thin arms.

"I don't know ma'am, considering how we were attacked earlier today I think it would be best to mute our presence as much as possible."

"Exactly, we are going to hide in plain sight, and if we get attacked again we know the separatists are tracking us. Sound good?"

"Sounds risky" said Cassus.

"Good then" she said flashing a mocking smile his way, "let's go then."

She strode over and opened the door waiting for him to follow, "come on" she said, and Cassus holstered his blaster and obeying the jedi walked out.

Tara clutched the paper cup tight in his hands letting the hot foamy coffee warm her pale green hands, the streets outside were once again being pounded by rain, the café they had stopped in was doing little to warm her up, across the table Cassus sat a similar drink in his hands, the wet and cold seemed to do little to faze him, crystal like beads of water clung to his beard stubble and short Mohawk, he hadn't even bothered to pull his hood up as they walked through the heavy rain.

"Aren't you cold?" she asked trying to suppress a shiver.

"No," he answered in his usual emotionless tone, "I'm used to worse."

"You mean on Kamino?" she asked, taking a sip of her coffee enjoying the warm feeling that spread through her body.

"Kamino suffers heavier rains than what I've seen on this planet, I'm simply conditioned to handle it."

Cassus drank his coffee studying the many patrons of the café, keeping an eye out for danger.

"I think we're safe, I don't sense any danger here" she said pulling his gaze away from a young couple sitting together across the room.

"Sorry, it's a habit" he said pulling his gaze away the young couple.

"A little healthy paranoia?" she asked.

"Exactly," he answered, "I sleep better for it."

"I never heard of anyone sleeping well and expecting someone to kill them at the same time." She chuckled emptying the last of her drink and tossing away the paper cup.

"It's easier to sleep knowing your blaster is close, and you're away from the enemy's line of fire, I came to terms with the idea of people wanting to kill me a long time ago."

"I'm sorry," she said her eyes fixed on the table, "I keep forgetting that you're a clone, most people I know had lives before the war, I guess other than training on Kamino your life is the war, I heard you along with all the other ARC troopers spent a few years in cryosleep just waiting for the war to begin."

"We were put into stasis pods to help ensure our training and skills would be put to use and that we would not age past our usefulness" he said, "our lives are shorter because of the cloning process, they felt it would be wasteful to have to decommission us due to cloning errors and time."

Her glassy eyes scanned his stone cut face, he looked rather pail compared to most troopers she had seen, probably from the lack of sunlight from always having to be wearing that helmet.

"That doesn't bother you?" she asked.

"I never said I liked it," he said tossing away his own cup, "but being executed for treason doesn't agree with me at all, and I don't know what I would do outside the army."

"But you took an oath to serve the republic," she said.

"And what do you think would have happened if I refused to take that oath" he said, "I can't exactly refuse the purpose of my creation."

"So then what do you plan to do when the war ends?" she asked.

"I don't know, I have much other than the military, but that doesn't agree with me, I'll have to cross that bridge later."

Tara stood up, "let's go, we have a few hours to kill before we can move out."

Cassus nodded and left following right behind her.


	7. Just through the Fingers

Hours passed by as Cassus and Tara wandered the city, they passed the hour buy pretending to window shop and getting a better idea of the layout of the city, passing buy many club goers and bar patrons, trying to present themselves as a young couple.

"What time is it?" asked Tara, as they sat on a bench waiting to be picked up by public transport air bus, to take them across town to their target.

"0122 hours, most of the clubs close between 0200 and 0230, I suggest we return to the hotel between 0230 and 0300 to help us avoid suspicion when we return."

"I don't think a couple arriving late would arouse much suspicion from a front desk manager," said Tara.

"Regardless, I would like to avoid it if necessary."

The airbus stopped and they both stepped on, Cassus stopped and paid the fair trying to play the part of the young couple as best he could.

Cassus took his seat in the back next to Tara; the jedi scooted in close and leaned in against him resting her head upon his shoulder again trying to play to the angle of the young couple, as the cover was necessary Cassus was beginning to wonder just how far the jedi was willing to take their cover just to convince a few people.

The city lights passed them by as the bus speed thought the streets, the rain streaked down on the windows as it poured from the sky picking up in strength, Cassus watched as the commuters came and went on and off the bus taking note of everyone, many were drunk having to take an airbus home in their intoxicated state the closing bars forcing them to return to their homes to sleep their drinks away.

The airbus stopped at their destination, Cassus moved to stand but realized he was pinned to his seat by the sleeping Twi'lek.

'Jedi' he thought amazed that his commanding officer has so carelessly fallen asleep in the middle of a mission.

Cassus grabbed her shoulder and shook her awake, "Were here Tara, wake up."

The woman's green eyes slowly opened and gazed into his own, "were here" he said again, "You need to get up."

The jedi moved away and they both stepped out into the rain.

The space port was mostly empty, as empty as they could hope for at this time in the early morning, Cassus took note of the security droids standing in for city police.

"Ust's ship should be here" said Tara stifling a yawn, "I don't know how much we can hope to learn from it though, the authorities have already checked it."

"Let's hope they missed a few details," said Cassus.

He entered the port, a very minimal amount of people walked around many of them trying to catch a late night transport off system.

He pulled Tara behind a wall away from the sight of the security droids; through the fence he saw the light freighter where Ust had reportedly docked, Tara took one of her lightsabres from her jacket but Cassus grabbed her hand, "We should avoid leaving evidence of us being here; can you force jump?" the Twi'lek nodded putting the lazersword back into her purple jacket.

There was no sound as the jedi leaped into the air and over the tall chain link fence; she touched down on the other side not even a slight tap of her feet touching ground, she turned to Cassus and closed her eyes focusing as she concentrated, using the force she lifted the Trooper into the air and over the fence.

"Cassus" she whispered, "Someone's in the ship, I can sense it."

"Ust?" he asked hopeful that their prey would present itself so easily.

"I don't know" she said.

"I'll check it out," he said, she nodded, "I'll stand watch and keep you posted" she tapped the communicator in her headband.

Cassus nodded, "just don't fall asleep on me" he said getting a sneer from the jedi and he walked aboard the already down ramp, his DC-17 drawn.

The cramped confines of the ship appeared to be empty; he looked though the cargo hold and cockpit seeing nothing as he moved from room to room and as soon as he was sure he had cleared ever last inch of the ship did he feel the muzzle of the blaster being pressed up against the back of his head.

"Don't move clone" said a move warped by an electronic synthesizer, "hand it over and don't call for backup."

Cassus felt the blaster being pulled from his hand, he didn't resist, he wasn't about to get a hole burned through his head over a simple blaster, he'd have to wait for an advantage to present itself.

"How'd you know I was a clone?" he asked, "I don't think we've met before."

"If you don't want people to think you're a clone, don't carry a clone's weapon, only you lot carry DC-17's."

A sudden sound of blaster fire could be heard from outside, "Cassus" the female voice sounded on his ear piece, "I'm being attacked by the security droids we're compromised."

A sharp loud clang was heard of the ships boarding ramp shutting closed, someone had to be controlling the vessel remotely; a crimson red mist began to spill from the ships walls.

"Toxic gas don'tt breathe." The voice said and suddenly Cassus found himself being pulled down a hallway, he brought his shirt up to cover his mouth and found himself behind shoved into the ships escape pod.

Cassus turned and saw the man behind the voice, a tall man clad from head to foot in dull red armor the T visor of a mandalorian looking at him, the symbol of the Mythosaur was painted in black just under where the man's left eye would be.

Cassus looked straight into the visor and could tell the mandalorian bounty hunter was looking back, "Buckle up and hang on tight," he said, "This is going to hurt."

The man slammed his hand on the launch button jettisoning the escape pod, the pod lurched as it shot out and crashed into the concrete walls of the space port.

The world was spinning; Cassus's head was in pain, along with the rest of his body, the sound of blurred fighting could be heard and voices echoed in his head though he didn't listen.

He found himself being slapped awake, "Can you fight?" the voice said.

Again Cassus found himself looking into the T visor of the mandalorian bounty hunter, a DL-44 clutched in his hand the barrel smoking.

"Can you fight?" he asked again shoving Cassus's blaster into his face.

The clone nodded and he grabbed the weapon trying to stand in the wreaked pod, he clutched his side, he was sure he must have broken a few ribs among other things.

He crouched just outside the door of the pod; he saw the extensive damage with at least two large holes in the concrete walls that had been torn open as the pod crashed into them, the mandalorian charged outside clearing a path with a wrist flame thrower blaster bolts deflecting off his armor singing the red paint.

"Till next time friend" he said taking off and leaving Cassus along in the pod.

The security droids were outside firing their blasters away, Cassus could evidently see they were not set to stun, he fired his weapon trying to clear away the many droids, it wasn't just droids that were shooting at them however, among the stand issue droids he saw a great many humanoids joining in on the fight clearly not any form of police.

The humming of lightsabres sounded through the air as Tara sprinted in through the both of her blades twirling in gracefully deadly arcs cutting down droid and man alike.

"Are you ok?" she asked grabbing Cassus's free arm, "Though you might be dead," she said.

"Not dead, just wounded," he said limping away from the crashed pod.

"Where's the bounty hunter?" she asked but the mandalorian was already gone, nothing remained but the empty trashed pod."

Tara began to say something but her words were blurred out as the loud sound of a ship's engines kicked to life.

"Ust!" he said pulling away from the jedi's grasp and making a sprint for the torn walls trying to get to the ship, as soon as Cassus looked around the corner to the dock he was forced back by Tara who pulled him in with the force, the pod exploded as the ships quad lasers opened fire on the pod melting it and anything in their way into slag.

"Ust hacked the Security droids, he was ready for us Cassus, we need to leave."

Cassus wanted to protest but as the sound of the freighters engines died away with the ship leaving orbit he knew she was right.

"Let's go then" he said, she grabbed his shoulder and helped him limp away.


	8. Brunsk

Tara helped Cassus down on his bed back. "What happened back their?" she asked moving to remove his shirt and inspect the damage. His ribs were bruised black from the impact of the escape pod. His head had a bum the size of a small moon and was almost certainly cracked.

"I had a little brush with that bounty hunter. The ship was filling with some form of toxic gas so he jettisoned the escape pod in order to escape."

He leaned back on the pillow, Tara helped ease him down. "Ust was expecting trouble. He managed to slice the security droids. That's why they attacked us."

He lay there in silence as she hovered over him silent her hands running over his exposed flesh. "Stay still." She commanded closing her eyes. "I may not be a healer but I know a little bit about using the force to heal injuries. And I don't think a hospital would be a good idea right now."

Cassus sighed. "Ust got away. If we hurry now we might be able pick up on his trail." Tara sighed. "How do you plan to do that? He's far away from the system by now."

"We need to find one of his men and milk them for information. I doubt he went very far."

Tara put two fingers to his lips to silence him. "I can't focus when you're talking. We'll handle Ust later Cassus but right now I need to make sure you're ready to handle yourself next time we have a scuffle. I'll be like this for a while so stay still and try to get some sleep."

"With all due respect-" he said but found himself being cut off.

"That's an order trooper get some rest right now. I can't make much use of you if you're dead."

"Yes ma'am, right away ma'am."

Cassus grudgingly closed his eyes and allowed his exhaustion overwhelm him, the cool touch of the jedi's hands over him relaxed his mussels and he felt the soothing healing effects of the force run through his body. He focused his mind on the comforting sensations and let sleep envelop him.

….

"So why have you come here? To us?" His head felt like it was swimming. "It seemed like a profitable decision. But if you want I can easily take my business elsewhere."

Cassus snapped to recognizing the voice immediately. It wasn't hidden behind a voice synthesizer but he noticed the tone and accent.

He drew his pistol and rose from the bed. The mandalorian bounty hunter was forced into action. He stood no more than three feet from the bed. As Cassus leveled the baster the armored bounty hunter caught his wrist and twisted the blaster out of his hand. Cassus jumped from the bed and drew his knife from his belt. He pressed the knife close into the mercenary the tip positioned just between the heavy metal plates just barely pressing into the grey material his finger ready to flip the switch to the vibration generator. He stopped feeling the blaster pistol being pressed against his skin.

"Cassus" said Tara standing over them both. "Stop he's not here to fight, he's here to help us find Ust. Put the knife down." He looked into the man's eyes he couldn't be more than forty years old. He was gaunt and clean shaven his hair shaved bald with patches of black hair showing growth. "Forgive me ma'am but I'm rather skeptical about that." He said not moving the knife a centimeter.

"It's true" he said his breath smelled of whiskey and Cassus wondered just how reliable this bounty hunter would be. "For a price." He added with a grin showing his yellow teeth.

"Greedy scum," he growled.

"Stand down trooper "he said, "Listen to the pretty little Jedi and put the knife away."

"Put down the blaster." He retorted.

The Mandalorian smiled, "Fine" he said taking Cassus's pistol away from his chest and holding it for the clone to take butt first. Cassus took the pistol and holstered the weapon. He pulled away from the from the mercenary taking the knife away from his armor and returning it to its sheath on his belt. He grudgingly held his hand out to help the man up. He took and he helped the man onto his feet. Cassus had to take a step forward to balance himself the man's armor clearly wasn't made of dura-steel like he had through, it was much heavier than he had expected.

He grinned and took a seat in the corner. He opened one of the pouches on his utility belt and pulled out a flask unscrewing the lid and taking a swig. "Now back to business" he said. "As I was saying to your commanding jedi before I was interrupted I put a tracking beacon on your target's ship before we got jumped back there. I'm willing to give you the coordinates for a negotiable price."

"Name it" said Tara crossing her arms.

"Five Thousand" he said closing the flask, "And that's up front in my pocket before I give you two anything want the cost of his bounty he's due on this rock to be paid off. I want ten thousand when you find him."

"I have a feeling there's an 'and' with that offer," Said Cassis leaning on the wall, his hand close to his DC-17 just in case the deal went sour.

"And" he said giving a lot of emphases to the word. "I want the bounty placed on Ust's head."

"Bounty?" asked Tara, "I don't recall him having another bounty on his head."

"It was recently posted by the republic. The rewards are a hundred thousand credits and I want it. Meaning I plan to look after my investment."

Cassus's eyes narrowed, "You're not coming?" he said, "We have enough problems without looking a bounty hunter."

"I'll carry my own weight and if I die you don't have to blind an eye at me or even touch my corpse. But I don't expect you to leave me an I.O.U. for a hundred thousand credits and be on my merry way."

"I'll pay you an extra thirty thousand credits if you just give us the coordinates and leave us to our job." Said Tara not wanting their current company to follow them around the galaxy trying to make a few extra credits.

He shook his head. "I'm willing to make some credits on the side but to be honest I'm not happy to collect anything unless I turn in a mark of some kind. I have a reputation to uphold and I'm not soiling it for anything. Either I turn in the bastard with you or I walk out that door and do it alone. And good luck find him without me help. Without this you might as well just wander uncharted space for him."

Cassus looked to the jedi. Tara sighed in defeat. "Fine, you'll have your mark mandalorian, but we're going to check this bounty you speak of exists."

The man smirked in triumph, "of course and call me Burnsk."


	9. Back into Hyperspace

The stars in the sky turned to star lines as the small TL-1800 freighter jumped into hyperspace. Cassus lay back in his seat on the living area watching the bounty hunter Burnsk take a seat across from him removing his helmet.

After checking the HoloNet for conformation of his hundred thousand credits bounty they agreed to allow their host to feed their ships computer with the coordinates he had gotten and tag along as they traveled through hyperspace. He had insisted he travel with Burnsk to keep a better eye on him. Although his intentions of simply retrieving the bounty seemed likely Cassus insisted he follow his sense of healthy paranoia and ride with the mandalorian.

On the pulse side Cassus was back in his white and green armor. He had always felt naked without his armor and was pleased to be back in his second skin. Cassus wore his armor religiously having the habit of wearing it at all times even off duty to drink with the other clones. His DC-15A was sitting across his lap as he cleaned the weapon of the small amounts of dust it had gathered sitting on the ship in the cargo hold.

"Want some?" asked Burnsk holding out his hand to the ARC Trooper. Cassus tilted his head up to see he was being offered the man's open whiskey flask. "No Vor entye" he said turning his head back down to check the weapons charge port for any dust or grit.

Burnsk closed the flask and returned it to his hip. He pulled a Shento cigar from a small metal tube at his belt lighting it with the pilot light of his flamethrower on his wrist. "Have I offended you in some way trooper?" he asked blowing a smoke ring savoring the flavor of Tobacco. "You're the one who instead you travel aboard my ship."

"I don't like paying for work I can do myself. If it was up to me I'd be tracking Ust by myself. Burnsk smirked and took another swig from his flask. "I can respect that… but were all just simple men trying to make our way in the universe and I need the money."

"You seemed well stocked to me." Said Cassus loading the power cell back into the blaster rife content it was spotless. "You could retire."

Burnsk laughed and flicked the ashes of his cigar away into an ash tray on his chair. "The moneys for my ex-wife and my two kids. As for retirement I already tried that… can't think of a worse hell." He paused to take a puff from the cigar the red tip glowed bright as he took a heavy draw off it. "After fighting so long you forget to appreciate much else and my armor and I are two well attached."

Cassus looked over two the corner. On the wall there were three different suits of mandalorian armor all resting side by side perfectly. Burnsk turned his head and looked at the armor seeing what he was staring at. He took another long swig of whiskey. Cassus was starting to wonder just how much he could drink before feeling the effects.

"Meet kids three, four and five the oldest ones in my family."

"I'm sorry" said Cassus drawing his eyes away from the armor feeling a sense of morbidity at their very presence.

"Killed at Galidraan" he explained closing the flask feeling he had drunken enough of its contents. Cassus noted this gesture of self-control. "Jedi couldn't cut through their armor see? He pointed to the suits and indicated several burns were a lightsabre had burned off the layers of paint. "Finest beskar tal can buy… been in the family for generations. They had to cut between the plates to get to them."

Cassus didn't say anything he simply let the uncomfortable silence linger happier to let the conversation drop. He knew all about the Battle of Galidraan. Fett had taught them about it, he and his group known as the True Mandalorian were tricked into fighting the Jedi by the Death Watch; Jango had been the only survivor and had managed to kill six jedi with his bare hands. He knew Jango had never forgiven the Jedi for it and he had instilled some of that anger onto Cassus as well.

"How are you still alive?" he asked forgoing his caution on the rather touchy subject.

"I wasn't even their" he said pulling off his black formfitting glove to show his metal robotic hand. "I was fitting this only me stump and getting a bath in bacta off world during the battle." The man before him suddenly fell apart. He rested his face in his palm and sobbed. Cassus stood still. He was used to seeing people cry. He had seen enough of his brother break down at sudden moments feeling shell shocked and being forced to remember their fallen comrades. He had always hated it, had always let the men have their space and shed their tears and cry out their pains of loss alone and with dignity. He himself always made sure to be behind his helmet when he thought of the fallen dead.

"I couldn't even die with them. I couldn't even bury them. I had to retrieve the bodies and armor from the Order who kept them." muttered Burnsk wiping away his tears.

"I'm sorry" he apologized sniffing, "To much whiskey." He said picking up his cigar again and resuming his smoke.

"Don't worry about it" said Cassus reaching into his belt and pulling out a string of dog tags he had collected in the past year many of them from the Battle of Umbara when he served alongside the 501'st. He regretted many things from that battle. Most of all not killing General Krell when he had contemplated it. "I understand loss" he said holding up the string full of tags.

They sat in silence for a long while. Cassus had begun to clean his DC-17 as best he could. The worse thing about hyperspace travel was not being able to anything useful for a long while and having to wait for days and even weeks doing nothing productive.

"So where'd you get your name?" Burnsk asked a bearded hand Vibro-ax in his hand; he was sharpening the edge with a file trying to take out a particularly large knick in the blade. "I guessing you named yourself after Cassus Fett, one of your so called brothers give you that?"

Cassus shook his head not taking his eyes off his blaster as he checked the power cell. "I'm Alpha-84 the name was the jedi's idea."

"You're joking?" he spat, "Doesn't seem like anything a jedi would give to a clone."

"I never needed a name… she insisted and chose it for me."

They once again continued their weapon maintenance in silence. Cassus was now fitting the grapple to his DC-15A, he doubted he may need it once they reached their designation but decided it was better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

"Do you hate them?" he asked setting the rife down and wondering what he was going to do now that he had finished cleaning his weapons. He wished he hadn't polished his armor before starting this mission.

"The Jedi?" He said knowing to who he was referring to. "I don't think I'd say I hate so much as I'd say I resent them, I lost two sons and a daughter to them and thanks to them that shabuir Duchess Satine Kryze rules Mandalor and tarnishes our name with naive notions of pacifism; with no thanks to the True Mandalorians who fought the Death Watch and were killed by the Jedi. And thanks to the jedi the deathwatch lives and terrorizes the people of Mandalor who are too weak to fight them themselves. I can think of many mistakes made by the jedi mate… if you ask me there the dogs of the Republic and now their leading your lot in the war."

Cassus didn't speak. He knew in many ways he was right about the jedi. He could care less if the Confederacy became independent to the Republic, so long as they stayed off of Republic controlled systems he didn't care if the senate couldn't tax them or enforce their laws upon them. The Republic meant so little to him. The jedi were different though, mistakes aside he had fought beside to many jedi to not think of them as comrades. He had his objections over their rank over him. He often felt they were unqualified to lead men into battle. Had felt they were better soldiers than commanders. He had seen them fight and die. They were as vulnerable as any clone a blaster burned a hole in then like any other humanoid.

"You trust that jedi your with?" he asked.

Cassus nodded, "she handles herself well in a fight, and she's better than some jedi I've met barely even pulls rank on me."

He lifted the axe and inspected the edge in the light. "Don't mind me… I don't like jedi but I'm willing to work alongside them if I must. Helps that one's a looker."

"I hadn't noticed" said Cassus taking out his knife and deciding to oil the blade. In truth he had but right now he had enough on his tray without worrying about the man and woman compactions. He had no intentions of flirtation and hopeless romanticism ruining the only career he had. It was bad enough he was kept at the rank of sergeant for his ingressions in the face of command.

Burnsk chucked at his response. "You don't look blind to me."

Cassus ignored him and continued to work on his knife.


	10. Hot Landing

Four days aboard the Mandalorians ship had passed by rather quickly compared to most long periods of hyperspace travel Cassus had endured. Burnsk was rater talkative and cared little if he was listening or not. Most of the time he was listening to the old bounty hunters war stories and feeling the sense of longing in his voice. The man's life had been torn apart in the Mandalorian civil war it had taken his hand and much more out of him, the Death Watch seemed to be the single source of his pain. He had lost three of his children at Galidraan. From what Cassus could make out the loss had split apart his marriage and he couldn't even step foot on Mandalor with his armor. To the so called New Mandalorians Burnsk was a relic from an age they wanted to forget and leave behind. Cassus wondered how long until we would be regarded the same way. A soldier cast away with the war they fought an unwanted tool to be disposed of when needed.

Cassus was making use of the sonic shower aboard the ship removing the sweat from his workout session in the small compact gym aboard the freighter. Cassus had to admit this bucket of bolts was more accommodating than the transport he had taken with Tara. He stepped out of the shower and began to dress himself in his black bodysuit and later his armor securing the armored pauldron over his head and strapping on the chest piece and thigh plates and kama. The comforting weight of his dura steel plates completed him. This armor had saved his life many times and he knew it would many more before this war was over. He had known a few replacement clones who insisted they didn't need their armor during off hours. Poor kids got killed within the week. And they asked him why he hated replacements so much.

A loud beeping could be heard across the ship. They were about to exit hyperspace and reach the coordinates they had been given.

Cassus quickly finished attaching his armor and holstered his pistol checking the charge out of trained habit. Fett had once replaced his weapon with a faulty charge on Kamino during a training exercise. Cassus walked over to see as they exited hyperspace into the uncharted coordinates of wild space.

….

Cassus sat down in the copilots chair and watched as the ship exited hyperspace alongside Tara's transport. A small yellow sun came into sight as they entered the system. "Welcome to wild space ladies and clone. Completely uncharted territory." As they rounded the sun a small little blue green planet came into sight.

"The sensors are reading it as habitable" said Tara over the comm. "Looks like we have some company." She said. Cassus checked the sensor and read out a separatist droid control station orbiting the planet. "Sensors are picking up fighters" said Burnsk, "Take the guns and cover the jedi… I sense some turbulence and a hard landing."

Cassus grabbed the gunnery controls to the quad lasers as the pilot rushed the ship the planet. He didn't need Burnsk to tell him to cover Tara's ship. Without anyone else there she had no real way to defend herself. The vulture droids weren't particularly hard to shoot. Practice and experience really did make perfect in his case.

Burnsk was pushing his ship's engines to the limits racing past the fighters. Tara was flooring the afterburners. Her ship was faster and before Cassus knew it she was entering the planet's atmosphere a small amount of droid fighters on her tail. Cassus fired off the laser in short bursts decimating the remaining fighters. The small amounts of scrap fell to the planet's surface burning in the atmosphere. A loud beeping sounded from the cockpit.

"Shields are down Trooper keep those Shab fighters off our tail."

Cassus swiveled the turret and saw the dozen or so fighters tailing them lasers blazing away. The smell of something burning was clear to his nostrils. He fired away the laser. A sudden explosion rocked their ship. The vulture droids were destroyed in the explosion as a concussion mine was dropped.

"They off our backs now?" asked Burnsk.

"Cassus pressed the trigger to the quad laser for several second taking out the few stragglers. "They are now." He said staying on the gun just in case. "Any idea where we're taking this bucket down?" he asked looking at the lush jungles below them. "Need to find a place to hide me ship… scanners are looking fer some good cover."

The ship descended lower just skimming across the tree's. Cassus watched the screen to make sure they didn't put too much distance between them and Tara's ship.

"There!" exclaimed Burnsk pointing to a large waterfall. "Perfect little cave behind it." He explained bringing the ship in for a landing moving through the falling stream of water into the dark dank cave.

"That could have gone better" Said Burnsk unscrewing his flask and taking a swig. "Find out were yer jedi's hiding I'll check the damage."

…

Tara focused her mind trying to move the camouflage netting over the landed ship. She had no idea when she would need to use the ship next but decided it was best to conceal it in the landscape as much as possible.

Her comm beeped and she pressed the button on her wrist. "Commander?" Cassus's voice sounded over the comm.

"I'm here Cassus. How do things look on your side?" she asked stepping back to admire her handy work in hiding the ship.

"Ships damaged but we managed to hide it well… I'll keep the location discreet incase someone's listening."

"So how am I supposed find you if you can't tell me where you are?" she asked leaning on one of the tall trees.

"Do you think your jedi powers can get a lock on me?" he asked. That surprised Tara. Most clones didn't ask her or other jedi of ways to use their force abilities let alone inquire how to apply them better in combat situations. They seemed content to let the jedi worry about their force abilities and continue to use their standard issue equipment as usual. She closed her eyes and tried to focus her mind.

"I can sense you Cassus you're-"

"Don't say it" Cassus said interrupting her. "Just feel it and follow I see your location on the ships computer so I'll meet you in the middle. Watch out for droids I'm sure this place his crawling with them. Don't forget to grab the bag of droid poppers I left for you."

"Copy that" she said, "Over and out."

She rested her hand on her forehead. She had forgotten the droid poppers in the ship. it was going to take a bit to get them out and cover the entrance all over again.

…

Cassus checked finished securing his jetpack to his armor. He was glad he had packed it away. The thick terrain of the jungle would be troublesome to travel without it. He'd have to conserve the fuel most of the trip but it would make some of the more challenging obstacles seem very small.

"Hyperdrive's shot up" said Burnsk whipping his hands of smudge from the engine and taking out another cigar and lighting it.

"I'll have to ride back with you lot to Coruscant when we get Ust." He said.

"That's fine" said Cassus taking his DC-15A and checking the charge.

"I'll need to transport my effects as well, hope you have room in your hold."

"That's a different story" said Cassus sling sending a cable down the waterfall to repel. He'd still try saving as much fuel as possible when he set out to find Tara.

"Listen mate I'm not leaving without that armor… to hell with everything else."

Cassus stopped understanding the man's dilemma. He turned to the mandalorian. "Fine… the armor will come with us if you do."

Burnsk grinned glad to have an understanding. He pulled the cigar from his teeth and offered it to Cassus. He took the smoke and took a long draw off of it before handing it back to Burnsk. "If I'm not back by 2300 break radio silence and contact me." He said pulling on his helmet and taking the line he had dropped.

"I'll trust you to keep the fighting for when I'm not tied up and looking after my ship?" asked Burnsk returning the cigar to his lip. "I don't like being left out of a fight epically a big one."

"I'll try to keep droid casualties to a minimum, this this recon and retrieval only."

He disappeared into the water fall jumping off the side the rope taught in his hands.

….

The blue blade of Tara's lightsabre ignited with the loud distinctive snap-hiss. In three simple slashes she removed the thick bamboo like tree's that blocked her path. The small forest would take too long to travel around. Cassus was able to track her comm with his helmet and she was able to sense his presence through the force. It was a lot easier than she had predicted singling him out among the many other life forms in the jungle. She didn't know if Cassus knew it or not but she had delved deeply into his mind when she had been healing him that one night on Bakura. She through back to the way she had traced the lines of his face with her fingers her eyes fixed to his pale face in the dark as she healed him and looked deep into his mind. The experience had been in many ways depressing as well as enlightening. The stone cold ARC trooper war far more complex than she had suspected. She had watched many years of training on Kamino pass by countless drilling and exercise and tone his military mind to perfection. Most of the clones Tara had met seemed to regard their long years of training with a sense of indifference.  
But from what Tara could read from within his mind they had been the best years of his life. It had been back when all the members of the ARC troopers had been living and well. During this time before the war he had only to worry about failing training exercises and getting sent to the med center for a broken bone or laceration. He had hunted animals in the environmental simulation with the other members of Alpha and setting small fires to cook the meat they had gathered. And in the middle of all that stood Fett. Tara had sensed admiration towards the man but that seemed to only scratch the surface of his feeling towards the clone template. As far she could see Cassus looked upon him as a personal hero as a shadow for him to chase. Being pulled out of stasis and into the middle of the attack on Kamino had sent him into a war he had trained for his whole existence. The reality of Fett's death at the hands of Master Windu.

Tara had watched clones die through his eyes; members of his squad had been countlessly butchered time and time again over the countless battles. It seemed to be no wonder he referred to his fellow clones by their numbers instead of their names. A number was easier to forget than a name and there was nothing he seemed to hate more than a new recruit or a shiny as they were called having a name that stuck with him after their death. Tara wondered if he would keep the name she had chosen for him after their mission was over or simply go back to his designation number of Alpha-84. He had accepted the name rather well but she knew a part of him had taken it out of a desire to make her communicate with him better and to reduce tension between her and her rank over him.

Her thoughts were pulled back to the jungle as she heard the sound of metallic feet snapping twigs underfoot and the wiring of speeder engines overhead. She cursed under her breath and crouched low and weaved her thin petite body through the thin trees for better concealment. She knew it would immobilize her if she was discovered but nothing a few slashes with her lightsabre couldn't fix.

"I'm telling you my sensors picked up a humming sound coming from this direction." One of the B-1 droids said to another as they marched through the jungle.

_Shit, _she thought as she listened to the droids. She hadn't considered the type of attention her lightsabre might draw in when she used it, a distinctive hum like that in a wild jungle like this could he picked up on all kinds of sensors and listening equipment.

She watched as the droids moved in closer to the grove. "There are some burns on these tree's looks like they were cut by a lightsabre… I think the intruder might be a jedi."

The droids lined up outside the bamboo grove their blasters ready. "Blast it just to be safe."

Tara gritted her teeth and activated both of her sabers cutting away the trees and jumping from the grove sabers twirling and deflecting bolts straight back at the droids. The blue and green blades spun in deadly arcs as she cut through the lines of droids. It took her a second to realize it but when a stray bolt struck her in the leg she noticed all of the droids blasters had been set to stun. She didn't question her fortune as she recovered from the stun bolt barely phased from the sting. No matter no many droids she cut down they didn't seem to think of turning their blasters to a higher setting. The sound of S.T.A.P.s could be heard coming closer. Tara twirled on her toes and deflected the shot from the mobile aerial platform. Sending it straight back into the droid pilot knocking him from his ride. She jumped to the side propelling herself with the force. The pilotless craft zoomed down to earth and smashed into a group of droids.

Three more S.T.A.P.s was suddenly overhead firing down on her as they passed by. Tara dodged and deflected the shots but couldn't get a good angle to send them back to the fast moving craft. She sprinted and jumped taking a position on a jutting rock taking the high ground in case more ground troops came.

Her sabers moved around her blocking the many bolts that came trying to knock her down. Even the S.T.A.P.s mounted blasters seemed to be set for stun. Whoever was commanding these droids clearly wanted her alive as opposed to dead. As she suspected more ground troops arrived to fire up at her. Her worst fear realized she was trapped on this rock elevated above everything. She managed to deflect some of the bolts back but they didn't always stun or hurt the droids, many of them didn't seem to notice the stun rounds she had sent back.

A burst of blue bolts shot across the sky past her knocking a droid from its ride sending it crashing down. Tara watched as Cassus flew by in his jet pack his rifle in hand shooting out a long string of bolts to another airborne droid. Cassus grabbed a droid popper at his belt and tossed it to the ground short circuiting a line of droids. Their stun bolts stood no chance against his heavy ARC trooper armor and harmlessly dissipated on the white surface barely leaving a mark on the paint.

Cassus landed on the rock next to her adjusting the scope on his DC-15A to the top of the rifle. "There's more coming in from the east." He said checking the weapons charge. "I'll cover you from up here."

Tara nodded and hopped down happy to be back on the offensive. She lunged into the droid lines and begun her deadly dance cutting past the steel like butter as well placed blue bolts removed the stragglers of her destruction.

In a moment's notice it was over. Cassus flew down with the jet pack and inspected the handy work. He pulled out his pistol and shot down remaining droids there were still functioning despite the expensive damage they had sustained.

"Thanks" said Tara clipping the lightsabres to her belt. "I thought they had me for a second."

Cassus didn't respond but merely nodded. The range finder on his helmet came down and he scanned the area, "I think we can expect another patrol in a short while. Let's move west and draw them away from the ship as much as possible."

Tara nodded and walked off with trooper letting the more experienced soldier take point. "Why do you think their blasters were set for stun?" she asked presuming he had noticed that little detail. She wasn't surprised he had.

"They only wanted you I assume" he said, "Maybe they have need of a living jedi, it's not often clunkers show such kindness."


	11. Hard Decisions Breed Hard Truths

Rain just seemed to love Cassus. After an hour of walking it had started to rain again pelting the trees and filling the forest with the sound of water hitting the ground. Cassus wondered if he would ever serve on a proper desert planet with no rain. He wiped the visor of his hemlet of the drops clearing his HUD of obstruction as best as possible, the helmet had a temperature control system for the visor to keep it from fogging up. Tara covered herself in poncho he had given her from his survival pack. He had another plastic sheet covering his rife to protect it from the elements as they traveled.

With a huge plot his foot sank into the ground now a thick pasty mud.

"Maybe we should take shelter and wait for the rain to let up." Said Tara taking her own mud covered foot out of the mud. "I think we passed a cave half a click back."

Cassus didn't like the idea of rain halting his work but even he had to admit that this jungle would soon turn into a swamp. And his armor wasn't good for swimming. "Told Burnsk we'd be back by 2300 hours, else he'll break radio silence."

"If were leading those droids off course making radio contact may help lead them away." She said. "It beats having to swim back and your jet pack's only meant for one."

Cassus keyed his comm. "Burnsk… we'll be delayed due to weather conditions, the rains turning this place into a swamp."

"Don't train you to swim in the Army?" chucked Burnsk through the comm. "When can I expect you and your girlfriend to arrive I'll have the place cleaned up fer you both."

"ETA six hours after this rain stops. We're trying to lead some droids away from your position but they may be able to listen in and track us so keep your sensors sharp for clunkers."

"I'll show those Shab droids what happens when mess with mandalorians. Make you clones look like a friendly lot we do."

"Roger that over and out."

Tara smirked. "Sounds like you two stopped killing each other."

Cassus smirked under his helmet glad he wasn't giving the girl more to comment on. "We've reached a form of understanding over the past few days."

The jedi raised an eyebrow. "And understanding that keeps you from killing each other?"

"That's the kind." Answered Cassus as they backtracked once again taking point as they backtracked.

…

It had taken them an hour to walk back to the cave their pace slowed by the thick mud and knee deep water but the shelter was worth it. The cave was set onto a rock face and was elevated about twenty feet from the ground. High enough for them to not have to worry about it flooding. Cassus had shot the grapple from his rife and hoisted them up. Twenty minutes of camouflaging the entrance with vines and brush they both felt secure enough to rest up against the cave wall and rest.

Cassus unhooked the ration pouch from his belt and opened it to take out his ration bars. He pulled two bars from the pouch and a long silver tube Burnsk had apparently slipped into his ration pouch. "What's that?" asked Tara looking at the silver tube.

He uncapped the tube and slid out one of the Mandalorian's cigars.

"Burnsk must have slipped in it." He said removing his helmet to bite the end off and light the tip. Would add some flavor to his rather bland ration bar. The tip glowed as he drew it in the hot smoke. It was comforting in the cold dank cave. Tara quietly nibbled at her ration bar her legs pulled up to her chest. "So any idea what the Confederacy's doing this far away from charted space?" she asked trying to make simple conversation. "Don't know might be here for the mining purposes I suppose. Place like this away from charted space you can mine and set up all sorts of operations without anyone knowing or having anything to say perfect for hit and run opts."

"But scanners didn't pick up more than a single droid control station." She said wrapping her arms around her legs. "It's too small for a mining operation."

"Could be the beginning on one" he said taking another puff on the cigar. They sat in silence for a long while before he noticed she was shivering. She had dressed for a warmer climate. The warm humidity of the jungle was much different that the cold of this dank cave. Taking the initiative he gathered a collection of dry twigs and set them ablaze making a small fire to warm the cave. "Thanks you read my mind," she said hovering her hands over the small flames. There wasn't a lot of smoke and what little there was going to be washed away from the rain. Tara was more than pleased with the warmth although a fire wasn't her first choice for warmth that had crossed her mind. "How long do you think this rain will last?" she asked rubbing her palms together.

"Don't know. It could rain for weeks on Kamino." He flicked the ash off his cigar and took a bite out of his ration bar. Tara felt like she was trying to talk to another rock in the cave for all he said. She could feel more however. Despite his calm but determined demeanor she could sense a restlessness growing inside him. His restless disposition intrigued her. When he had been battling those droids that had attacked her she hadn't sensed any feelings of fear. Just a feeling of overwhelming determination and protectiveness. She wondered if there was any fear in him at all.

The cave grew dark as the yellow sun outside set. Cassus activated a small glow rod illuminating the walls in a low yellow light. Cassus took out a folded silver space blanket and tossed it to her. "I'll take watch, you can sleep." Tara unfolded the silver plastic blanket and wrapped it around herself. If it wasn't for the fact she was tired she was tired she would verbally question just who was in command here. Cassus seemed to have no problem taking his own initiative unless she pulled rank on him and took control of the situation. No wonder the Master Yasir didn't get along with him, he followed his instincts before orders.

Tara rested her back against the wall and closed her eyes trying to let sleep consume her.

….

Tara woke feeling sore and pained from the rock wall she was propped up against. She didn't know how long he had been asleep but she figured it couldn't have been very long because the red glow of Cassus cigar could still be seen in the dark. The glow lamp had been switched off and the only light was from the glow red of the cherry and the beams of silver moonlight that seeped in through their camouflage of brush and vines. Cassus stat by the mouth looking through the cracks in the vines enjoying his smoke his rifle propped up against his right shoulder.

She moved over and took a seat next to him the blanket. He didn't say or do anything as she sat up close her shoulder touching his. His eyes moved but only slightly as he watched the jungle for danger. She leaned against him wondering he would protest as he let her weight be put against him. His sold fame didn't budge or even yield the slightest bit as she slumped into him. _He really is a stone. _She thought as her cheek touched his pauldron. The smooth warm metal was far more comfortable than the cold walls of the cave.

_What am I doing here? _She asked herself. She knew this kind of behavior was frowned upon by the Order and would put her emotions into question if they knew. She had always been rather curious and had often wondered how she would pay for it. Although he didn't seem to mind her snuggling against him like this. He didn't seem to care in the slightest; his pulse didn't even seem to change. He pulled cigar from his mouth and put the stub out before letting out that last refreshing breath of smoke. She watched his face as it looked forward to the dark jungles outside. Her hand slowly moved up her fingers moved forward to brush the hard lines of his face. His hand came up as her fingertips were only a few centimeters away from his face. He caught her fingers in his hand gripping them firmly but gently and moving her hand away without saying a single word. He leg one of her fingers as soon as he had cleared her hand away. He continued to sit still and silently as she remained slumped against him.

_Guess he doesn't like his face being touched._

He picked up his helmet and secured and put it on securing it to his armor and switching on the night vision. Once again he sat completely still not moving in the slightest. Tara remained in her position for a long while trying to sense any change in his emotion. She drifted in and out of sleep listening to the patter of the rain.

She was suddenly pushed away as he snapped to. He pulled the stock of his rifle to his shoulder and held the massive weapon at ready with one hand. She opened her mouth to ask what he was doing but his two fingers snapped to her mouth to quiet her. It took her a second but the wiring of a swamp boat passing by the roaring engines of vulture droids could be heard overhead. Tara cursed under her breath. If she hadn't been too busy being curious and stupid she would have sensed that long before his helmet's sensors. The sound of distant explosions echoed through the jungle from long distances.

The comm in his gauntlet keyed on. "Don't tell me those explosions are fer you cause it sounds like you managed to piss them off good." The small blue holo Burnsk was dressed in full armor a carbine in hand looking ready for battle.

"Negative we haven't encountered any clunkers save those that passed us by without any thought. Must be for someone else, possibly locals."

"I don't think so." He said the blue hologram removing his helmet. "Whoever their fighting is equipped to fight them. Just watched a H.M.P. ship get shot down in the distance. Scanners didn't show much signs of tech on this rock so whoever's here is just as much a stranger as these droids. Could be colonists."

"This far out in wild space?" asked Tara.

"I've seen weirder things believe me. There's never enough room in this universe."

"If they are colonists then we should help them" said Tara taking off the space blanket and pulling up the hook of her robes tucking her green head tails under the brown material. "The rain's slowing down. I think we can travel so long as we stick to high ground."

Cassus nodded. "We'll check it out… could be potential allies we'll meet you in the middle I'll transmit coordinates."

"Roger over and out."

….

By the time Cassus and Tara had managed to clear their little camp inside their cave the rain had stopped completely. Cassus waded through the swamp his rife held up and ready. The sounds of distant bombing was evident and all around them. Tara was taking point moving through the trees. She hopped from branch to branch guiding herself with the force and having to stop and wait up for Cassus as he treaded water. He looked up at his small tracker he had linked to Burnsk's armor. The mandalorian wasn't more than two clicks from his location. Cassus suspected he used his jetpack to cover most of the ground.

Something about the plant life here was absorbing the water at an extremely rapid rate. Since he had begun walking the swamp the water line had dropped by six inches. He wondered how long before the ground was dry like it was the before.

Tara stopped and held her palm up ordering him to stop. He obeyed kneeling down in the water his rife shouldered and ready. The sound of droids matching soon came up on his sensors. Through the dark he saw their silhouetted forms matching in their standard lines wading water. _Hope you all rust. _He thought as they passed by.

"Reports have come in of Ssi-ruuk in this area… stay on guard and keep your blasters ready."

Cassus had never head of Ssi-ruuk but he figured they were what these droids were bombing the krif out of.

Suddenly the sound of whistles and beeps like an astromech droid was picked up on his sensors. The droids apparently had picked up on the nose as well and begun firing off into the tree's and establishing their perimeter. Cassus saw red bolts flash through the trees and cut down the clunkers returning their fire. He looked to the jedi and she nodded from him to open fire.

He ran to the side trying to get out of the line of fire and flak them from the side. He produced a droid popper from his belt and tossed it into their ranks causing a small half dozen to short circuit. The droid turned to attack their new enemy but Cassus was already laying down a heavy suppressive fire on the droids to allow Tara to close distance with her lightsabres. The jedi activated both blades and joined them together at the ends forming a double blade as he slashed through the army of metal men. The swooshing of S.T.A.P.s came in firing away their dual blasters. Cassus took cover behind a tree and rolled to the next firing away between the fire from the trees and his blaster the work of the aerial vehicles was cut short. Whoever the droids were fighting they knew how to make their shots count. The red bolts sill came out of the trees taking down droids with great efficiency. He watched as Tara knocked away a few of those well aimed bolts away from herself.

Cassus gritted his teeth under his helmet as he realized they were targeting her as well as the droids. "We are not your enemies." She cried to the dark jungle but the blaster bolts came at her regardless the more droids that were destroyed the more fire was concentrated on her. Cassus ran through the trees trying to get the new enemy into sight and ease her burden.

He turned around a tree and was knocked back as something whipped around the tree and knocked the wind out of him. Standing above him was what he could only thin was the enemy. It was tall and lizard like standing on its hind legs a long red scaly tail was what had knocked him down. The creature was almost raptor like as it moved over him a harness of weapons hung from its chest and a blaster was in its clawed hand it opened its mouth to reveal a great maw of teeth a forked tongue emerged and tasted the air. Cassus raised his rife but it was knocked from his grip by the Ssi-ruuk's clawed foot. The weapon discharged as it was knocked from his grip and the bolt struck the monster's hand holding the blaster. The creature wasted no time pouncing on him opening its mouth and trying to bite down on his shoulder but his armor held. He punched it in the snout and drew his Vibro-knife plunging the weapon into its neck activating the weapon and feeling the small vibrations as it tore open the scaled flesh spilling blood all over his armor. He hefted the body off of him and picked up his DC-15. He wiped the blood from his visor and continued to move forward into the trees. The lizard like aliens had moved up and into a clearing all had red scales and were trying to gang up on Tara. Small green bulbous droids rolled across the forest they looked strangely like astromechs and fired a small blaster from the top of their ball like bodies.

Cassus fired at the droids and they stopped some had their wheeled legs blasted from them and fell to the earth harmless.

He moved across the clearing his blaster spewing out bolts hitting droid and Ssi-ruuk alike. He stopped beside Tara who was moving around him circling around and keeping off the bolts. Many of the shots dissipated off his armor. Many of the droids had set their blasters to stun and were trying to take down Tara. Cassus and her were back to back moving as one as they held off their enemies on all side coming from the forest.

The tree's snapped as two droid battle tanks crashed through the forest its main gun blazing as it fired into the trees incinerating the Ssi-ruuk and their small droids. Cassus leaped into action leaving Tara to continue her deadly dance as he charged one of the tanks. The armored hovercraft didn't bother to aim at Tara. Those droids really wanted to take her alive so she was in no danger from the massive cannon. He rolled as cannon shot exploded behind him kicking up mud and rocks; he could feel the heat under his armor. He jumped on the tank boosting his jump with the jetpack taking his blaster and shooting away the hatch. The droid looked up at him and lifted up his blaster only to be decapitated by another shot from the trooper. He activated a thermal detonator and tossed it in flying away as it exploded. He was about to move onto the second tank when it too exploded.

Burnsk flashed by on his jet pack the spend rocket launcher in his jetpack and landing in the field his vibro-ax and blaster in his hand. He blasted a droid down and hacked a Ssi-ruuk with his axe decapitating the creature. Cassus tossed another detonator into the trees taking down another group of droids.

"Looks like you two made some new friends. I though jedi were peace keeps." Burnsk chucked through the helmet comm taking down another alien with a double tap of his DL-44.

"They attacked us. We were helping them with the clunkers when they attacked. Don't play well with others I suppose." Cassus pulled his pistol his rife empty and fired off clearing the rear flank of droids before slamming another power cell into his rife. He turned and focused his attention back to the red scaled reptiles. "Any more krif droids?" asked Burnsk throwing the axe and embedding the weapon into one's chest.

"Not on my sensors" he said taking a knee and crouching behind the wreckage of the tank for cover. Burnsk stepped forward his pistol hosted and his carbine slung into his back blaster bolts ricocheted off his armor, he raised his hand and activated his flamethrower setting the jungle in front of him ablaze roasting the Ssi-ruuk still in the brush. The aliens screamed in horror as their bodies were consumed by the fire they wailed out in their whistle like language and were soon silenced.

Cassus and Tara stepped forward as Burnsk took his axe out of the creature's chest. "So much fer helping em… Shab you two really did a number on them."

Cassus ignored him and stepped out his cover drawing his pistol executing the remaining and damaged droids. Many were still twitching and trying to move despite their damage. Tara separated her lightsabres and returned them to her hips. She looked over the damage of the battlefield observing Cassus as he finished off separatist droids.

"Wait" she said as he was about to shoot a Ssi-ruuk droid.

"What?" he asked pausing as the small little droid twitched on the ground.

"That droid… it's… alive."

Cassus raised an eyebrow but realized she could see past his helmet. "What do you mean it's just a droid? Some form of technology used by these aliens."

"No its not… its different I'm feeling something from it… it's in agony they all are somehow their all suffering."

Cassus looked at her. "Is there anything I can do about it?" he asked. Tara sighed and shook her head. "No, just make it clean."

"I always do" he said blasting the droid.

….

Tara turned the knob of the sonic shower of Burnsk's ship. After about another hour of traveling through the swamp they had finally managed to reach the man's ship. She had dropped her bag in the living quarters and had and marched off to the shower to clean off the mud and grime.

_Why did I sense something from those droids? _That particular question had been running through her head over and over again ever since their encounter with the Ssi-ruuk. As soon as they had encountered them she had sensed those droids. Suffering and in agony they weren't like other droids they were alive. Somehow there were alive but not alive at the same time. Their cries of agony echoed across the force and had chilled her very soul. There was something wrong about those creatures and those droids something evil.

She threw her muddy robe off and was about to strip off the rest of her clothes when she realized she had left the rest of her clothes in the living area. She sighed deciding to leave the shower running as she stepped out of the room to grab her bag. She turned the corner and saw Cassus and Burnsk sitting together. Pieces of Burnsk's armor was sitting on the table in front of him, his hemlet was in his hands being scrubbed clean of the mud that had dried up on it. Burnsk was smoking one of his cigars a bottle of Corellian whiskey open and in front of him along with a glass half full.

"No" said Cassus his eyes fixed on the white and green helmet. "My place is with the Republic."

Burnsk let out a smoke ring. "I think you'd have a better place here." Said Burnsk gulping the last of the whiskey down and pouring another glass. "Yer good in a fight and this ship's been gettin lonely since... well ye know, I've been getting attached to ye, and I think the rest of my family would like ye too."

"I'm sorry about your family, truly I am but I have a duty to perform." Cassus had put the helmet down and begun washing one on his shin guards so caked with mug you couldn't see the white.

"A duty?" he almost chucked. "The only duty you have was thrust upon you. They grew you in a pod and expect you to die for a cause that has nothing to do with you. What do you think going to happen to you when this all ends, eh? You think you'll live under that Republic flag and call yerself a citizen?"

"It's not about me. This war isn't about me." Cassus growled under his breath clearly wanting this conversation to end.

"That's what's wrong with it. It's not yer fight, you didn't choose and ye certainly don't have a stake in it. Yer not a citizen of the Republic Cassus yer just a number to them. Yer just Alpha -84 a number to be thrown away and fergotten, yer fellow clones will remember ye but no one else. Ye can't have the freedom to choose, or ta fell the warmth of a woman's flesh, or the joy of a son in yer arms. To the Republic, yer no different than a droid."

Cassus stood so fast his chair hit the ground behind him clattered to the floor. His fist swept across the man's jaw knocking the cigar from his lips. The armor from his hand had cut a large gash in his cheek. Burnsk flashed the trooper a bloody grin, stopped closed his lips and spat two teeth onto the metal floor. He smiled again showing the sheen of blood on his yellow teeth. "Just think about it fer me trooper Shab I could even call you Ad."

"Don't call me that" he growled, "I'm not your son."

"Aliit ori'shya tal'din." He said in mando'a.

_Family is more than blood._ Tara repeated the mandalorian phrase in her mind and hoped she was invisible to then. She wondered just why this man was trying to adopt Cassus.

"Just give me the right answer boy and I'll say ta words… I'll give ye everything ye've been denyed. Don't answer me yet… think about it. Think bout what ye really want and then answer me when yer ready."

Cassus just glared and picked up his helmet and pieces of armor storming off and out of the ship.

Tara was frozen where she stood. She was glad Cassus hadn't seen her. Burnsk took a sip from his whiskey wincing as the alcohol must have burned his gums were his teeth here punched out. He kneeled and picked up his cigar and two teeth. When he brought his head back up he saw Tara and smirked placing the cigar back into his teeth and sitting back down.

"Sorry, when I see something I like I can't help meself."

"You had no right to-"

"Ta what? Offer him freedom?" he asked taking another sip of whiskey again his face winced in pain as his gums were burned by the spirit.

"He's made his choices, he's chosen his side." She said crossing her arms and leaning against the hull. "You have no right to put that into question."

"No right? And who are ye to talk about rights, you and yer Republic. Clones don have rights. They don't choose or swear oaths of any meaning because if anyone chooses different they get the nasty end of a blaster."

"You don't think I like it?" he said trying to force back the tears she knew were welling in her eyes. Burnsk was right. She had shared his thoughts many times. "I don't, I hate it. Many jedi do. It's just immoral and wrong and they have no right to make those men fight… but we're at war… and we need them… we need him."

Burnsk took a long draw off the cigar and let out a big cloud of smoke. "War? Is that yer excuse? War is a time of growth, a time we mandalorians cherish and adore. War is a time to stand by principles, not throw them away, that's what a coward dose."

Tara grabbed her bag and returned to her shower. She didn't say anything. She didn't protest. She didn't cower, because she knew he was right. She stripped off her clothes and let the shower do its work. The way Burnsk had talked to her had sent her over the edge. She hated the way he looked at her, talked to her, the way he was right about her and the jedi. The war was wrong, it was all wrong the way they grew people to die. They really were droids, for all the respect they gave them they were nothing but droids expendable fight machines to be slaughtered and forgotten, just clone more, just build a better droid and make more when they break. What could she offer Cassus except slavery and war? Burnsk offered him choice, freedom and everything that had been denyed to him.

Jedi Bardan Jusik had left the Order protesting the use of clones. He had stood for his principles in the face of war. _We all should_. She thought of his example and wondered just how right he had been, rumor had it he had gone to Mandalor. Who was Tara to deny Cassus the right to become a Mandalorian? Who was anyone?

She slammed her fist into the shower walls with anger, she was angry at the Republic, at the Separatists and Burnsk, but most of all herself.

…..

Cassus sat in the back of his cave scrubbing the mud off his armor trying to forget Burnsk's words. His tempting words and bitter truths. Everyone and everything about his life screamed of his loyalty to the Republic. He had never believed in that; growing up on Kamino his loyalty was always towards Fett and his brothers. Fett was gone, cut down by the very jedi who had sent him on this mission. And his brothers felt more and more distant every day. Everyone in his squad was a shiny; and they didn't last long. His less than agreeable personality had kept him in the lower ranks. The war had given him a long string of dog tags. If it wasn't for him they would have all been melted down and made into new tags for shinys who would soon die and the process would soon repeat itself. He had liberated their memory; he knew the number of every tag in his pouch, every clone that had died alongside him.

He had only one duty, not to the republic but to the clones who owned the tags on that string. He had promised while shedding silent tears behind his helmet to win. To make a purpose of their deaths and win what they had believed in. He had promised to live for all of them and see the day they had fought for, had died for. His duty, his only duty was to his brothers. The Republic could go the hell for all he cared; he wasn't a member and would never be one.

The Mandalorian life called, but his promise lingered. He thought about the way Tara had slumped against him form. He hadn't felt anything of her.

_Of course you Di'kut you were in armor. _

He imagined her without the jedi robes, without his military carrier to think about. No war no Republic to tell him what to do or who to fight. Just them together maybe even happy. A fantasy, a simple unattainable fantasy, she is a jedi and he's a clone a shadow of what was once perfect. She was kind to him, she gave him his name, and one he was sure he wished to keep. Had insisted she see beyond the designation number. He liked her, the thought of a life together was thrust into his him; it was a good life. But it wasn't his life and he doubted it would ever be. Tara showed compassion back in that cave and he had remained a frozen solid statue as she leaned on him. But would she be willing to leave her order behind? Cassus didn't think so, and even if she did he would never be free of the Republic.


	12. ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad

Burnsk watched the vulture droids touch down on the landing pad through the HUD on his helmet. He zoomed out of the image and tapped the button on his armored bracer making a note of the coordinates of the base. He pulled up his rife and fed the image from his scope into his helmet getting a better look at the base through the better lenses.

_That's Ust's ship all right._

He told himself looking at the familiar freighter with the missing escape pod. He slung the rifle off his back and climbed down the high tree where he was scouting from. His tongue kept brushing over the soft gums where Cassus had knocked his teeth out. He made a mental hook to avoid that right hook next time he wound up on the wrong side of a clone trooper. The man delivered a punch like a Fett that was for sure.

He took a seat on a fallen log taking off his helmet and pulling his flask from his hip. The whiskey burned his gums but he savored the burn. Serves him right for trying to help a clone, programmed to serve the Republic to the death. He liked the kid. Four days in hyperspace had felt good with company, being alone on that ship with no company save the armor of his deceased children. He hated how those visors looked at him when he was alone. The thought of that clone filling one of those suits pleased him.

He rarely saw his other two kids anymore, let alone his former wife Ellen on Concord Dawn. Not that he didn't enjoy visiting her or his children. He was still supporting them giving them a large cut of his bounties. And Ellen often told him to stop by more often and visit, their divorce hadn't been pleasant but it had been rather smooth all things considered. After the war, they had drifted apart more and more, their children's deaths at the hands of the jedi and the loss of his hand had changed him since their marriage. Theirs was a broken love but he and Ellen had remained on good terms despite the divorce. His other two children had moved on with their lives and were making their own paths in the universe. His ship was lonely and his job brought him all over the galaxy, sometimes he would spend weeks traveling in hyperspace at a time. He would watch as his cigar butts piled up around his feet and his bottles of whiskey were emptied. He didn't know why he drank alone; he hated drinking by himself more than anything.

But he couldn't sleep, sleeping was the worst thing he could do. When he slept he dreamt, and when he dreamt he imagined losing his hand all over again. Imagined those suits of armor talking to him with his children's voices mocking his lost hand and asking her why they died. He hated being alone, and he liked the kid, missed having a son fighting by his side.

He sighed and stood screwing the lid back on his flask and returning it to his pouch and begun walking again. The jedi was supposed to meet up with him and give her reconnaissance report along with Cassus. They had barely spoken since he knocked his teeth out. He wondered if he was even really thinking about his offer or had shoved it back into his mind.

The sound of an engine roaring above snapped his head up. A separatist transport flew over him low and fast moving towards the landing pad. He continued his walk back to the rendezvous point when his comm was keyed breaking radio silence.

"Burnsk, Tara… are you getting this?" Cassus asked through the comm in his helmet.

"Negative I'm moving back the rendezvous point what ye got"

"I'm not seeing anything either." Said Tara, Burnsk hadn't had more than one voice in his helmet in a long time.

"That transport that just came in is carrying prisoners; I'm looking at around ten clones and if my eyes serve me right a jedi."

"A Jedi!" both Burnsk and Tara exclaimed in unison. "What do they have a jedi here for?"

"I don't know I'm getting all kinds of radio chatter. Let's meet back up and see if we can decode it."

…

The blue hologram of Ust papered on the ship deck bowing low to the hologram of what could unmistakably be Count Dooku.

Burnsk and Cassus had managed to decode several of the recent transmissions. Most of them had been field reports of their recent encounters with the Ssi-ruuk and their progress driving them off planet.

"Greeting lord Dooku, I am pleased you heeded my requests and have presented me with those prisoners I have asked for."

Dooku raised a threatening eyebrow, "I have no quarrel sending you clones… but a jedi? General Grievous was not very happy to give up his prize. Especially the lightsabre."

They watched the recording and wondered what purpose taking a jedi could serve for this man. "The General has a large enough collection of the jedi weapons if I may be so bold. If these experiments are successful we will have an alternate form of powering our droids, one that will make the Republic regret using clones."

"I still don't see how this warrants a jedi Ust!" growled Dooku; clearly the count was skeptical giving such a prize to this researcher.

"Think of the jedi as a greater investment my lord. If I fail in this test I can merely add another droid to your army… but if I succeed I may be able to harness the power of the jedi and present in a new battle droid. One I think you will be very impressed with."

Cassus paused the holo-recording turning to Tata. "Is that possible? To make a droid like… you?"

Tara shook her head. "I've never heard of inorganic things ever being able to use the force, only things that are living have been able to….."

She trailed off in thought a look of horror on her face. "Tara what is it?" asked Cassus bringing her attention back to the present.

"Those droids… the one's those aliens used, the Ssi-ruuk, their droids were somehow alive… they must have a way of… of taking their life and putting it into the droid."

Cassus felt a tingle crawl up his spine. It didn't seem possible to him but he trusted Tara when she said she felt life in that droid he had executed. His thoughts turned to those clones he had seen being led by blaster point probably not knowing their fates.

"We have to stop this!" said Tara, "We have to stop Ust and save those men… Before it's too late."

"It might already be" Said Burnsk lighting his cigar with a match. "But we can't let that kind of terror leave this planet." Said Cassus pressing a fresh power cell into his rifle and checking the rest of his equipment.

"Listen I'm all fer this chumps but before we start speeding for that landing pad let's think fer a moment. Do ye really think ye can get close to that little base of theirs before they sound all kinds of alarms and make a crater out of us?"

"If we don't move those men will die?" Tara cried as she moved to leave the ship.

"Yer right. But getting yerself killed won't help them or yer Republic. We need a way to close some distance to that base."

"The Caves" said Cassus, "we haven't travel through them farther then the entrances but they seem to be all over. I bet some of them may even lead to the base. When I was scouting I saw a droid patrol come out of one with a tank close behind. I think they are using them to get around faster instead of chopping their way through the jungle or wade through the swamp."

Tara smiled, "Let's try it."

…

Cassus tried to breathe as the speeder bike rushed through the dark caves. Tara had insisted she take the controls as they traveled through the massive caves trying to find a path to the research center. The green skinned Twi'lek was smirking as she turned the throttle making the bike go faster. He could tell she enjoyed the speed the bike was providing. Burnsk had pulled the two bikes out of his cargo hold for them to use as they traveled the caves. Cassus wished he hadn't. He was fine on a speeder. But this jedi was taking some the corners too tightly and too fast for his taste, he was almost certain he was going to die from the experience. Burnsk was far behind them left behind in the jedi's dust. The bike zoomed along at full speed hugging the wall as it turned into the next tunnel. The split second reactions were amazing but also terrifying.

Cassus breathed as she halted the bike to a stop. In the tunnel. Her head tails had been pulled back by the wind and were draped over his shoulder. He pushed the tendrils off of him and stepped off shouldering the rifle and checking the corners of the cave. In a short few seconds Burnsk pulled up his bike behind them.

"Crazy jedi, I told ye to take it easy, can't keep up with ye speeding off like that. And yer corpse can't very well pay compensate me it ye crash those things. They aren't cheap."

Tara removed the goggles she had been wearing with a grin on her face. "Sorry, I should have told you I get a little crazy on speeder bikes."

Cassus laid his pack down once he was sure the cave was clear of threats and started laying down a long string of charges along the cave wall. They had agreed their best means of escape was through the caves as well; best to set a trap so they couldn't follow.

"How close are we to the landing pad?" asked Tara hiding her bike behind a bolder next to Burnsk's and taking her pack from the saddle bag.

"Were half a click from the target area. One of these tunnels should take us directly there. Since those clunkers have travel through here." Explained Burnsk sitting on his bike and pulling out his flask. "Three hours till dark… should rest until then."

Tara nodded and turned to Cassus. "Get some sleep." She ordered, the lack of sleep Cassus had been recently getting was all too evident to her jedi senses.

The trooper leaned against the wall as ordered his helmet still on. "Take the helmet off… I want to make sure you're getting proper rest and not checking your sensors."

The Trooper sighed and removed the white and green helmet he rested the back of his head on the cave wall and closed his eyes obediently.

….

Tara sat in the pitch black. It was rare she ever experienced any form of darkness this pure. The complete black completely free from light. It was strangely comforting to be able to see absolutely nothing.

A match was lit and Burnsk face came into view in the orange light. He was lighting another cigar and Tara was beginning to wonder just how many he had on him.

He blew out the match and the room was dark again save for the glow of the cigars cherry.

"You should be getting some sleep as well." She said seeing the bags under his eyes from the cigars glow.

"Sleep doesn't agree with me." He said letting the smoke out to disappear into the black. They sat in silence for a long while before Tara again broke it.

"You're right." She said hugging her knee's to her chest. "I know everything about this war is wrong… especially the clones, especially Cassus." She sighed in the dark as the warrior sitting in front of her gave no response.

"The Galaxy is breaking in our very grasp and we're bearing the weight upon those men we made. It's just… they handle that weight so well it amazes me." She smiled to herself, "We jedi are supposed to put away our personal feelings in the face of adversity and pursue what is right. But those clones I see fight and die do just that like it's nothing special. I have a duty to all sentient life in galaxy. Without the clone army so many people would die. But so may clones have already died. No matter what happens someone has to suffer, someone has to bear that weight."

Burnsk blew out a plume of smoke, "Bear the weight?" he said with a slight chuckle. "As jedi that job was supposedly up to ye."

"I can't stop what happening Burnsk… but if Cassus wants to come with you when this is over I won't stop him… I'll say he's dead if I must."

"That's kind… but ye don't want him ta leave do ya?" he smirked as he bit into his cigar.

"I'm… attached to him" she admitted saying the words in shame. "He's strong… he handles all this pain and torment behind that helmet and I would never guess what kind of suffering he was undergoing if I wasn't a jedi. He fascinates me and has made me think."

"Think what?" he asked.

"That with people like him on our side… we can win this war."

"But at what price?" he said, "War consumes everything jedi… it consumed everything I had and it will consume Cassus. If are attached… let him go and find his own destiny."

….

The patrol of B1 droids passed them by quietly. Cassus, Burnsk and Tara stood from their hiding spot

and began moving. The entrance had opened up before them. The Separatists had built their base into the system of caves. Cassus had thought they used an entrance to enter into the caves, he hadn't suspected they had used another cave entrance to move around the jungle. He had never suspected them to have built the facility into the caves themselves.

Tara clicked on her lightsabre and plunged the blue blade into the metal wall was Burnsk and Cassus covered her. They ducked into the perfectly round hole she had cut. The jedi moved through the dull gray halls her sabre moving around cutting the few droids on their security droids. Cassus and Burnsk fired off their pistols taking careful aim at every security camera they spotted. They know the noise of their blasters wouldn't go unheard but they had reached the stage where stealth was almost impossible and they had to make do with the element of surprise and force.

They jogged down the hallways shooting and slicing down the small droids that appeared in their path. "I sense something this way" said Tara turning right and moving down the hallway her sabers deflected a few stun bolts.

She stopped at the doors and spun slicing through the steel and making the metal doors fall at her feet. Several empty tables lined the wall along with spare droid parts and two B1 droids standing guards. Burnsk shot the two droids down with two well-placed shots.

"Empty" she cursed under her breath. Cassus didn't know what possessed him but he grabbed the jedi by her robe and pulled her back as a blaster bolt almost struck her.

From the shadows a tall black droid appeared standing upright on two legs. It looked like a magna guard but with more platting on its legs and torso. In one hand it carried a heavy blaster pistol and in the other a long curving vibro sword. A second sword was strapped to its back. Cassus tossed in a thermal detonator and cleared away from the door as it exploded.

"You're little explosive won't be enough to destroy my new weapon trooper." The sound came from the intercom, He cursed Ust's name under his helmet.

"I was planning to combat test them with some of my droids but you three are perfect. And ARC Trooper and Jedi and a mandalorian. Dooku will be most impressed."

The droid came out of the doorway brandishing its curved blade. Tara's lightsabres moved and parried the sword. He had hopped the weapons would be cut down by the jedi's weapons but hadn't expected Ust to look past such a critical flaw.

Cassus turned and saw three other droids had descended on them. He let Tara continue to battle her foe as he moved to cover him from the other droids. The twin blades twirled and met her lightsabres with remarkable speed and precision. The droid wasn't even bothering with the blaster and had engaged her with the twin blades. Tara pushed the droid with the force trying to blast it back but the droids feet were implanted into the ground keeping it stable..

Burnsk activated his jetpack and rushed forward to another of the droids down the hallway. Cassus had pinned two down with his blaster set on the highest setting for maximum effect and the third was moving up trying to double team the jedi. He slammed into the droid tackling it to the floor. The black droid swung its sword at the mandalorian but the blade harmlessly bounced off the armor. He pulled his axe from his belt and swung down into the machines chest again and a again tearing apart the black steel and silencing the automaton.

"One fer me." He said drawing his pistol and firing at the droid engaged with Tara. Two bolts were blocked by the armor, the droid responded activating to circular ray shields on its shoulders. Turning its body to block the mandalorians view. The arms came together and it attached the blades at the hilts making a double bladed weapon to wield with one hand as it free hand drew its heavy blaster and aimed at the mandalorian from above the shield.

Burnsk took cover around a corner and saw a crowd of B1's heading their way. He sheathed his axe and took up his second blaster laying down a heavy amount of fire on the weaker droids.

Tara saw her opening as it pulled out the blaster. She blocked low and sent her second blade down cutting off the sword hand the machine turned the blaster to her but she blocked the bolt and decapitated the droid and sent her second blade through the monsters chest ending it.

"We have to leave!" she shouted to Cassus as she moved out in front of him deflecting blaster bolts. "I'll cover you make your way to the exit we can't fight them all at once."

Cassus obeyed and retreated slowly keeping a few paces behind Tara as they slowly worked their way down the hallways giving her supporting fire. Burnsk covered the rear with his two heavy blasters keeping the regular droids off their back with great efficiency.

They exited out the hole Tara had cut and Cassus threw in three thermal detonators. Waited for the explosion and tossed a few droid poppers for good measure along with some smoke to cover their retreat.

They sprinted down the tunnel trying to reach their stashed bikes and their trap. "We can lure them into the trap crush everything it we time it right." Said Tara turning back and stopping, she attached her lightsabres and activated the double blade preparing for the onslaught of droids. "Be ready with that detonator." She said.

Suddenly Tara was knocked back and slammed against the wall one of the new droids emerged from the dark and hefted up a sword above the jedi; the droid reached for a silver cylinder at its belt and activated a green lightsabre. Tara's limp winded form was lifted to the air by the force as the droid prepared to strike her down.

Cassus sprinted in not caring if this droid could use the force or not, the blue bolts bounced off the armor. It deflected some of the bolts and slashed at the trooper with its blades. Cassus dropped low and rolled around the droid. His DC-15 was cut in half by the lightsabre as he rolled around. He drew his knife and plunged in into the droids side cutting through metal plating and wires. The machine halted as its systems were cut into.  
Cassus smirked, some droids systems froze when cut into by a vibro-knife. He drew his pistol and fired full charge into the droids head decapitating it.

The droid sprung to life headless and alive. Cassus jumped back and in time as Burnsk came him swinging his axe at the droid. Cassus and helped Tara up as Burnsk kept the droid in check. Both sabre and blade couldn't cut through his armor and his axe was managing to block the lightsabre.

"We need to get out of here." He told her as she got up. "Get to the bikes." She commanded as she jumped into the fray. Cassus did as commanded and hopped on one of the bikes ready to blow the trap when commanded. Tara and Burnsk were kept on their toes and the droid blocked their attacks. The droid pushed back Tara again with the force sending her back. The jedi jumped and turned her body her legs easing her as she was forced back into the wall. She sprung off of the wall and back to their foe when the droid spun away from her. Burnsk slashed at the droid and knocked the vibro-blade from its grip. The droid attacked with the lightsabre but Burnsk held it in a block. The droid contorted its arm and pulled out the knife in its side and stuck slipping the blade between the metal plates and into the mandalorian.

Burnsk screamed and fell to the droids feet. The machine picked up the vibro blade and stabbed into the mandalorians shoulder. "NO!" Tara screamed and pushed back the droid with the force away from Burnsk.

"GO!" she commanded Cassus as she parried another attack from the droid. "Leave!" She picked up Burnsk with the force and levitated him closer for Cassus to pick up.

Cassus picked him up and slumped him over his bike.

"COME ON!" he shouted to the jedi.

"I'LL HOLD HIM OFF LEAVE, THAT'S AN ORDER."

Cassus was about to scream a protest when he noticed the trigger on his detonator had been pressed by an unseen hand. Tara had reached out with the force and had detonated his charged. The explosions had knocked him off his feet as more and more rock fell from above blocking the tunnel and Tara. He cursed the jedi under his breath and hopped on the bike looking back to make sure Burnsk was still alive. He was but the wounds would need to be looked at in due time. The medical supplies they needed were back on the ship; he poured some bacta and closed the wound hoping there was no internal damage too deep for the bacta to heal.

He keyed the throttle and speed away praying Tara was alive.

…

Cassus lay Burnsk back into his chair aboard his ship. The man's shoulder wound was black and rancid. The bacta was having little effect and he was sure the blade that stabbed him was poisoned. Cassus pulled his knife from his side and whipped it clean and returned it to his belt.

He removed his helmet and to get a better look at the wound. It only helped him realize there was nothing he could do. He had some training with poisons but he had neither the knowledge of this poison or the facilities to help him.

The mandalorian groaned and removed his helmet. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. He gave Cassus one of his grins. He reached for his cigars and flask.

"Take a seat boy" he grumbled biting the tip of his cigar and lighting it. "Finally done in by a droid… who would have thought."

"You're not dead yet." Said Cassus looking at the cigar he had handed him. The smoke looked ominous in his armored hand. He felt like lighting it would be admitting defeat. He had experienced friends dying on the battlefield before. It was why he avoided having friends. And now the closest friend he had had in a long time was dying drinking whiskey from his flash as if nothing had happened.

"Don't try to comfort me… I've wanted this for a long time now, there's no loneliness in death kid, and I guess I'm not even alone in these final moments. I can feel that damn black poison moving through my veins and killing my slowly… you know… I always thought I'd die as some nameless bounty hunter on some rock, taking a stray blaster bolt and dying with no one around me that gave a Shab. It's nice to be wrong sometimes."

Cassus didn't say anything his eyes refused to meet his; he wished he hadn't thrown his helmet across the room because he felt a tear slip out of the corner of his eyes. "Cassus?" he asked coughing up a few drops of blood.

"Would you… have come with me… would you have liked to be a mandalorian?"

"Yes" he said… "I would have come with you."

Burnsk gave a bloody grin and held out his flask for him to take. Cassus stood and leaned over to take it when Burnsk whispered "ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad." Cassus grabbed the flask and sat down drinking from it.

"Glad I could have a drink with ye… son."

Burnsk had spoken the words… he was dying and he had proclaimed Cassus to be his son. "I wish I could have known ye better Cassus Tal'sung."

After a few moments of silence he was gone.

Cassus swore, loudly as he tears came forth. Farther? How could he call him farther? How could he just go on with his life as a clone? Did Burnsk expect him to walk away from everything and pick up where he left off? He didn't know. Right now he had a duty to perform.

"Cassus?" his hemlet comm chimed in from across the room. He ran and put it on to hear Tara's voice.

"Tara!? You're alive!"

"I managed to get away. Their after me… can you track me?"

"Yeah… I'll arm up and meet you."

"What about Burnsk?" she asked stabbing his heart.

"He… didn't make it… I'm on my way."

He turned the comm off and turned to Burnsk. He put his helmet on and grabbed his flask putting it to his belt. Moving to the door.

He turned and took one last look at the warrior. "Goodbye… Farther."


	13. Bared Emotions

Cassus had managed to find the hidden ship just fine. He had to admit Tara had done a good job of concealing the ship. If it wasn't for the tracking beacon he may not have been able to find it. He opened the hatch and made his way to the cargo bay where his weapons were. That droid had trashed his DC-15A but his Westar-M5 and DC-15S were still stashed away along with some extra power cells and equipment. He grabbed the DC-15S and holstered it. Picking up the M5 and slinging it onto his back. He was going to need as much fire power as possible if he planned to get through this and he didn't know when he would be able to come back here so he decided it would be best to take it all. He made a mental note to pack a rocket launcher for next time. He had figured he wouldn't need such heavy fire power while hunting a fugitive. His jetpack carried a concussion missile but he was saving that for a special occasion.

"Cassus you there?" Tara called in through his comm.

"Yeah… salvaging what I can from the armory. Any sign of those droids?"

"A few B1's and even some Ssi-ruuk… but not those things. Cassus… are you ok?"

"I'm fine Tara. Try making your way over to me… we need to stop Ust and those droids from leaving this rock." He explained checking the charge of the M5, "Stay low until I reach you."

Suddenly the hull of his ship was blasted open. Cassus cursed and leapt out the hull breach his blaster blazing away. A battle tank fired another shot blowing open another hole in the ship's hull.

"What's going on?" she asked through the comm.

"Nothing much" he said rolling behind a tree for cover. "Just a tank."

He blasted down two droids and hopped atop the tank blasting down the droid commander and tossing in a detonator. The tank exploded as he jumped off and begun waling back into the wreckage of his former ship.

"Our ships trashed… we'll need another way home. I'm going to activate our emergency beacon; hopefully someone in the republic will hear us."

"Ok" she said, "We can also see about finding a ship with a hyperdrive. Cassus… I'm worried."

"I'm sure someone will get the signal… until then we can manage." He said keying the beacon and covering the ship in the camouflage net.

"I'm not worried about that" she said, "… I'm worried about you. I know your hurting about Burnsk I can feel it… I just want you to know you don't have to deal with it alone."

Cassus ignored her, "I'll meet up with you later."

He grabbed a pack from the corner and began filling it with ration bars and some charges along with as many power cells as he could fit in.

Cassus took the remaining charges he couldn't carry and begun to set them around the perimeter of the ship set to bow with tripwires. He knew it was a crude method but it had served him well in on Jabiim as well as ARC Trooper training.

Cassus shouldered the M5 and begun moving out into the jungle when the sounds of rain pattering his armor. He quickened his pace knowing soon the jungle would be turned into a thick misty swamp. He wondered if the jungle received these rains every few days only to have the water drained away by the ravenous plants.

"Cassus?" asked Tara through the comm her voice a whisper, "I need your help… some more of those droids are after me… a half dozen I think… no sigh of that force sensitive droid. Plenty of others though. I think they have it out for me."

…..

Tara whipped the sweat and rain. She had taken temporary cover behind a rock and was trying to catch her breath. The droids didn't move very well in the swamp. The new droids had been able to keep up with her just fine but their battalion of standard issue battle droids were slower and they seemed to want to keep them close to help them swarm her that much better. The tactic was working very well, and to make things worse she had already taken a few stun rounds and was feeling the effects. It took all of her concentration in the force to keep herself from collapsing.

She jumped as a droid came down from the trees vibro swords in hand; she hopped over the swampy water and took a position on the high ground just above the water line. Her sabers whirled around blocking both blaster bolts and blades. Another soul powered droid jumped in from the jungle its swords leading the way. Tara was trapped on both sides and overwhelmed by the sheer number of droids that had flanked her. The B1's kept up their relentless blaster fire keeping her on edge.

A stun round caught her in the thigh and she felt her leg wobble as she fell upon it. A sword caught her in the side the curved tip cut into her green flesh tearing through her.

She collapsed on the muddy ground and bit her lip in pain trying not to scream out in pain. She didn't pay any more attention to the droid. The stab had only cut flesh but she could already feel the tingling sensation of the blades poison working through her body at its painfully slow rate. She concentrated hard on trying to extract the poison from her body. Her head lolled to the side and she felt the warm rain pelt her cold body, it felt nice. Some droids off to her side were carrying a med-unit to retrieve her. She looked around at the jungle and stopped when something caught her eyes. Her vision was blurred but something thin like a metal stick was protruding from the water, it looked like a rangefinder.

The white and green armored ARC Trooper stood from the water the rangefinder of his helmet swiveled down over his eye as he raised his rifle. The two special droids turned to see the clone amongst them but before their sensors could register him. The blaster must have been set to its highest setting because the first two shots burned large fist size holes in the droids. He activated a thermal detonator and tossed it. Tara watched in dazed amazement as he twirled in the swamp his rifle blasting away droid heads. He moved to her side and she felt a bacta patch being slapped onto her wound. Her vision went black as she could no longer keep her eyes open. She felt her tiny body being thrown over his shoulder; the armor plates were hot from the blaster bolts it had blocked. She felt him running and all she focused on was healing herself and the feeling of the rain hitting her body.

….

Tara slowly slipped out of her state of unconsciousness. She slowly opened her eyes to the black canvas of stars above. She was laying on a bedroll; a survival blanket was draped over her alone with her tattered jedi robes. It took her a second that only the blanket was covering her nakedness. She blushed as she realized Cassus must have stripped her in order to check her wounds and make sure her wet clothes didn't make her freeze to death in the cold night. Her wound had a layer of synthetic flesh to close the wound as well as a gauze wrap for good measure.

A small fire was burning next to her and the cold jungle night air makes her skin tingle. Her clothes were hanging from a tree branch close to the flames drying next to the flames. Off away from the makeshift camp just at the edge of the light of the fire stood Cassus, he was standing strait as he looked out into the woods his rifle in hand ready to be used at a moment's notice. She called her clothes to her with the force and dressed herself under the cover of the blankets. She pulled on her pants strapped on her bra and managed to pull on the remains of the blooded and torn shirt. She sat up and was about to approach him when she noticed the ration bar that had been placed beside her for her to eat. She picked it up and forced herself to eat it, making sure she swallowed every last bland flavorless bite. She stood and approached the trooper. She knew he had to have noticed her wake up but he showed no sighs staying as still as a statue.

"Um… thanks for the rescue. And the medical care, even it you had to strip me."

"I didn't look." He said not moving even a little as he spoke. Tara felt the rise of emotion and embarrassment touches him through the force. He could hide his emotions very well under his armor but through the force she could tell his face had gone crimson. "Did… Burnsk die well?" she asked stepping closer to the statue his back to her face.

"With all due respect Ma'am I'd rather not talk about it." His voice was cold and emotionless but she barely noticed his tone over the wave of sorrow that flushed over her. She closed the distance letting her forehead rest against his armored back between where his shoulder blades would be her hands grabbed his plated sides. She wished this armor didn't separate them. While only a few quarter inch plates separated them Tara felt like they were separated by parsecs. She reached out to him in the force feeling her essence wrap around him feeling his pain once more. She felt the weight and burden the war had inflicted upon him, sensed the numbing pain of losing his squad so consistently to the poor decisions of the jedi and their unqualified leadership bought by their lightsabres, the pain of losing Burnsk. Tara was surprised how much emotion the bounty hunter had stirred from him, although his time with the mandalorian was short he had left a profound difference on his life. Tara had thought his emotions of him would be similar to losing one of his fellow clones but it was very different. It was stronger and mixed in with feelings of anger and confusion.

Tara's focus was broken as the sound of engines roaring above snapper her out of her trance. The sleep freighter moved across the sky and into the upper atmosphere. Ust was leaving. She felt him tense against her and the feelings of anger and hated swelled as his prey escaped from him.

"Damn him" he growled, clenching his fist his head raised to the sky. "Damn him to hell."

Tara pulled herself in closer to him hugging him and reaching out in the force. "It's ok" she whispered to him. Cassus kneeled as his knees went weak. He had heard her words but it was her presence her being touching his emotions that affected him so. He felt a warm sensation run through his body a soothing feeling that experienced the pain by his side, not removing it but sharing it enduring it and understanding it with him.

"He'll pay… for everything." He whispered letting himself down onto his knee's Tara's arms wrapped around him even more as he sat upon the muddy ground.

"I know… I'll help you Cassus… I'm sorry for everything." He stirred in her embrace and for a second she feared he was going to break away from her. But he turned and she found his armored limbs pull her close his helmet rested against her forehead. Tara felt him shake and through the force he shed his emotions into her breathing his pain and anger and confusion into the jedi embracing the comfort and unrequited compassion of the woman he clutched to his plated chest feeling her body heat even through the metal plates.

"During the second battle of Geonosis a squad of mine was deployed as an advance strike force to weaken the planets orbital defense system eliminating anti-ship missiles and orbital defense guns. Two jedi were assigned to our squad a master and padwan both. Our LAAT was shot down forty miles from the target zone and five men were killed on impact along with the pilots and the knight. Two were wounded severely and could not move and most of our equipment was lost or destroyed in the wreck. I advised the Padwan in command that we should abandon our main objectives in light of circumstances and proceed to clear away secondary objectives and resort to guerilla tactics and inform command of our status and inability to perform our main objectives.

"Against my advice the padwan insisted we should carry on and fulfill his master's mission and complete the primary objectives. Because over half of the jetpacks were damaged beyond repair we had no choice but to travel by foot for the whole way over fifty miles of rocky desert and through treacherous canyons. My men and I had to fight every step of the way. The two wounded were left behind in the shelter of the wreck and it wasn't until after the battle that their remains were found ripped apart by the local's limb from limb. I lost three quarters of my squad on the journey alone; half of them were lost when the padwan insisted we travel through the caves to avoid the artillery barrages that were coming in on our position, I had advised against this having remembered the briefing clearly warning of the swarms within the caves. The padwan had managed to kill three of my men in the caves when he carelessly caused a cave in with their force abilities causing a cave in and costing us precious time as we had to find an alternate route through the tunnel and were forced to backtrack through the labyrinth. Despite the need of stealth and a low profile he ordered the use of heavy weapons during the smallest of engagements and having us leave a trail of craters as we disposed of every secondary objective along the way showing a trail of destruction. By the time we reached the main objectives he had one hell of a fight on our hands and we managed to take out the anti-ship missiles. After we had accomplished our objectives we headed to the extraction point just me and the jedi, the rest of my squad had been killed. During the retreat were ambushed mutable time and eventually the jedi managed to be swamped and got himself killed. He was only fourteen and had never been taught to command men in his entire life."

Tara had listened to very word as he spoke his tale. She had remembered reading of his survival at the  
Second Battle of Geonosis, knowing he had been the only survivor of his squad. During debriefing he had stated he felt there was a lack of trained leadership and the mounting poor decisions had led to the unnecessary deaths of his squad and the jedi, his statements had been ignored by high command.

"They didn't need to die… none of them, I could have prevented it, I should have prevented it and suffered the dishonorable discharge and faced the lethal injection later."

Prevented it? Tara wondered if he means he should have killed the padwan, she had no doubt that is what he meant.

"Why are you telling me this?" she whispered.

"I don't know." He said in his stone voice.

"Do you hate us" she asked. She had known Cassus held resentment for jedi holding rank over him but now she truly wondered if he hated them. Hated their power over him. Their refusal to speak out against the unethical creation and forced fighting of clones? Of forcing the burden of the Republic on them? Did they deserve that hated? That resentment?

"I don't know." He said in his usual emotionless voice, droids had more emotional voices than this man.

"Do… do you hate me?" she asked afraid of the answer afraid of his dangerous emotions she could feel being bared to her.

"No… I think I love you."

…..

Cassus pulled back the string of his improvised bow, he had spotted a fish in the water and took aim adjusting for the magnification of the water and letting the arrow fly.

The wooden missile stuck his prey and Cassus took up the line attached to the arrow pulling in the catch. He had made the bow out of scrap droid parts and the arrows out of thin branches. He and Tara had been living off the land for about a week now. Their supply of ration bars was beginning to thin and they had decided to experiment the fish that lived in the swamps. Cassus wondered where the fish went when the swamp dried up in the short amount of time it took for the plants to absorb the water.

He had barely talked to Tara since their little sharing session. She had stood and left going off to bed after he had spoken the L word to her. He cursed himself; he had been emotional and unstable at the time. He had often wished the jedi would keep her thoughts to herself and remain silent, now he took that back having to deal with the unbearable silence.

_But that what you get,_ he thought, he didn't know what he was thinking or even saying. He admitted he was attracted to Tara in a physical way. But love? He knew as much about love as he knew about using the force, in short not a damn thing. She was reliable if a bit clumsily, and her ability to react gracefully in battle was most impressive. During the last week they had dodged droid patrols and managed to keep out of the sights of their blasters for the most part. The soul powered droids were nowhere to be seen, Cassus had never been one for comfort, but he missed sleeping in a bunk, he slept well in a bunk. He hopped to leave this rock and with luck find Ust.

….

Tara licked her lips in anticipation as she watched the fish Cassus had caught roast on the spit he had made over the fire. She was glad to be eating something other than ration bars. She decided she could get used to this kind of living. Despite the silence she kept around Cassus she had to admit her time here stranded had been most tolerable, enjoyable even. Admitting that only scared her more. Her emotions were stirred up in light of recent events. Her thoughts always drifted to the war, Burnsk, the story Cassus had told her. But most of all what Cassus had told her.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

She had told herself over and over but each time she felt like the meaning of words were slipping from her grasp.

"Their done" Cassus said taking a fish and handing her one. She had thoughts naturally. She silently nibbled her fish enjoying the taste of real food if a bit charred. She looked at the ground and tried to ignore the sounds of Cassus eating. She would have liked to say she was confused and unsure of her emotions. But she knew full well of her own feeling of attachment, of desire. She wanted to tell him, speak of her shared emotions. After coming into contact with his feelings through the force she had to suppress her urge to speak and share her own thoughts and desires on this emotion they shared.

She repeated the code in her mind reminding herself of her own duty to the order. Her waning faith in the jedi order held her emotions in check. Although she questioned the wisdom of the order she had no desire to be expelled while the war was in full swing. The galaxy needed the jedi and she would not fail the call because of her own desires.

Her comm suddenly beeped startling her and making her drop her fish. She looked at Cassus and then keyed the comm. The blue holo-image of Master Windu appeared before her. "I received you S.O.S. Tara I think I can give you a lift."


	14. R&R

The debriefing room of the star destroyer was dull and lifeless as ever. Cassus and Tara had spent the last hour divulging the details of their mission. Cassus hadn't spared any details of their mission telling him of Burnsk extortion of them, Ust's multiple escapes from the, Burnsk's death. He hadn't spared anything in his report save for those few moments of indiscretion with Tara and the last words he had shared with Cassus. He was concealing the hand axe he had taken from Burnsk; it was strapped to his armored thigh hidden under his kama and he had no intention of surrendering the weapon along with a few other possessions from Burnsk to anyone. Non-commissioned weapons were often confiscated and this small axe was anything but commissioned.

Windu had just left and Cassus was still looking over the data his helmet had recorded looking over the various specks of the newly designed battle droids watching the holo-image of the droid infused with the life force of a jedi holding the lightsabre in its metallic fingers reaching out in the force to shove Tara away.

"Are you coming?" asked Tara standing outside the door, "you can look over that data later."

"Just want to check on a few things." He said not looking away from the holo-image watching as Tara's lightsabres clashed with its.

"Get some rest R&R troopers." She ordered looking over the layers of mud that had caked onto the clone's armor, he looked over to her and she smirked as he clicked off the holo-image. "You've earned it."

"Yes ma'am" he said saluting as she left.

…..

Tara curled up to her pillow in her cabin sighing as she draped the warm blankets over her happy to be back in a real bed. After an hour of medical care vaccines and various other treatments she was allowed to go to her assigned cabin to change her clothes and shower. The cruiser was heading for an outpost to be refitted before returning to its patrols in the outer rim. After the debriefing Master Windu had taken her aside to divulge his concerns about their mission. Having lost Ust again they were both beginning to doubt whether or not they would catch this him. As far as they knew his Ssi-Ruuk technology was already in separatist's hands. It seemed her time with Cassus was almost at an end and they would soon be moving on to different missions elsewhere in the galaxy. The idea mad Tara's stomach sink as she imagined the gap between then become parsecs in length.

The communicator in her room turned on and linked her to the bridge, Master Windu was calling her. "We have a change of plans, our cruiser will have to find a new outpost to refit and refuel. Theirs a Republic base twenty thousand parsecs from our location some back water planet called Kalm."

Tara rubbed he eyes as if she had been sleeping the she really didn't care about the change of plans in the slightest but acting according to her station she sat up and looked at the hologram.

"Why the change of plans I thought station RS3113 was ready to receive us?"

"The station has been attacked," Said Windu, "We've lost all contact."

"WHAT!?"

…

Tara stood by Cassus watching the holo-message play. The clone's armor had been cleaned of the mud that had been caked on from living in the swamp. Or at least half of it had been. Tara imagined he had been cleaning his armor when the call had come in. Half of the plates were brown with dry mud while others shined their glossy green and white colors. His faced concealed by his helmet as he watched through the black visor as the blue holograms of clones fought and were cut down one by one by the advancing droids.

"My helmet has just marked the station commander as KIA, a dozen or so clones and officers have been taken prisoner, my men and I will hold them off as long as possible but we will inevitably loose the station, we are requesting reinforcements as well as rescue teams to evacuate the wounded and captured. We managed to lock ourselves in the armory with three squads he have transmissions they more isolated clone are fighting their way to us but we can't be sure of anything and are staying safe the droids wont use explosives out of feat of setting off the other ordinance, they have deployed some short of knew battle droid it wields blades and is faster than most droids , I think they wish to capture this station intact, they cut the life support but our engineer mas managed to put it back online in this sector of the station we will continue to transmit our status as the battle ensues, please send help. End transmission."

The image of the clone disappeared and the bridge was quiet once more.

"We have to mount a rescue." Said Tara turning to Master Windu, "The station is barely thirteen parsecs away we're the only one who can get there in time."

"I'm sorry Tara but we can't risk it, that station had two destroyers guarding it with full hangers of fighters, our ships barely stocked and fueled after our last battle, we can't risk it." Explained Windu crossing his arms.

"If we take a single shuttle and a squadron of fighters we can launch a small strike team to extract survivors, give me and Cassus a squad to command and we'll be able to rescue those survivors."

"Cassus?" asked Windu raising his eyebrow.

"She means me sir." Said Cassus speaking for the first time since the meeting began. "She issued me a name during the mission."

"I see." He said turning back to the jedi.

"I'm sorry but the answer is still no. I can't risk anyone in the hope of rescuing a few clones."

Tara clenched her fists, "Those clones are people, if we don't save them it will betray everything the Jedi Order stands for."

"Those people are already dead; Tara there is nothing we can do to change that."

"They didn't look dead to me." Said Cassus speaking up to the jedi master. "That transmission isn't even an hour old, it's quite possible the survivors have still managed to hold off the advancing droids and maintain their current position."

Windu's brow furrowed at this interruption, "I don't remember giving you permission to speak freely trooper."

"That's because I didn't ask sir, and with all due respect I'm ready, willing and fully able to follow Commander Tara's plan. I am quite confident those men are still alive and will remain so until rescue."

Windu looked irritated at the boldness of the soldier in front of him looking into the clone's visor.

"You're telling me you want me to risk more men and one of our jedi because you believe that after an hour of nonstop fighting a small group of clones has successfully managed to hold back thousands of battle droids and is alive despite exhaustion and being outnumbered."

"Ever seen a squad of clones pressed into a corner commander? Corner a squad and well hold off a whole regiment of droids. Corner three squads and put them into a fully stocked armory and we can hold off a whole star system."

Windu turned away from the trooper. "The answer is still no, return to your quarters, both of you."

"Maser" said Tara, "That clone reported new droids, I think it maybe possible Ust is at the station and is combat testing the droid, this may be our chance to capture him."

"Your speculation is noted but but my orders still stand return to your cabins for some R&R."

They both walked out of the bridge silently and without word as they went their separate ways to their cabins. Tara was furious, if that station carried any jedi, any civilians she had no doubt Windu would be ordering all remaining forces to stage a rescue mission. But they weren't jedi they weren't civilians, they were clone, and somehow that justified their deaths.

She opened up her cabin and threw off her robes and jumped into the cool sheets trying to relax to no avail. She hated Windu; she hated the cloning labs on Kamino. Cassus had stood up to Windu and stood beside her ready to die for his brothers in arms. But what were the clone to the Jedi? The jedi didn't look upon the clones as the clones looked upon each other. Clones respected and protected their brothers willing to die for the man right next to them without hesitation or complaint. To the Republic, the Jedi, they were tools, living weapons to be used and disposed of in times of peace, as Burnsk had said they were no different than droids.

Tara laid sideways across the bed her head tails draping over the sides. She couldn't stand for this; she wouldn't allow it to happen, not as a jedi.

_No, _she though, _I'm no longer a jedi, if obeying to order means this then it means I'll have to leave the order behind me, I'll have to leave the Jedi Order._

….

Cassus brought his forearm up blocking a right hook from the training droid. After an a few hours of scrubbing off mud the last thing he wished to do was sleep. He pounded his fist into the droids torso with all his strength. A buzzer sounded and the droid went lip as he won the match in only two moves. He took a training knife off the table and punched in the training program. Three more droid approached him with training knife and begun their assault. Cassus held his knife out defensively, the droids attacked he dodged and parried the attacked. He slashed down and cut the synflesh arm on the droid, the robotic limb went limp as its programming kicked in and he stabbed into the droid. He ducked a slash and elbowed a droid back in the face as he pulled the knife out to parry an attack from another droid. He pulled the hatchet from his thigh and cut into the droids chest. He brought the axe up and parried the knife from the last droid and plunged his knife into it deactivating the droid.

He returned the axe to his thigh were it was hidden under his leather kama.

"I don't recall that being an issued weapon trooper."

Cassus turned to face Windu who was standing a ways behind him his arms crossed. He straightened at attention realizing he was in the presence of a commanding officer.

"Apologies sir." He said. Windu held out his hand to receive the weapon and Cassus hesitated. Despite his silent concerns he handed the weapon over to the jedi hilt first. Black fingers curled around the hatchets grip and Windu twirled the weapon around with the grace and finesse he would only expect from a jedi.

"Not a bad weapon, it's heavier than it looks." He handed the axe back to him; Cassus gratefully tool back the weapon happy to possess the weapon once more. He would sooner fight Windu than give up anyone of Burnsk's possessions to the Republic.

"It's made of beskar, sir."

"Are you skilled with it?" he asked.

Cassus would have liked to tell him to look at the beaten training droids as an example, they were programed to move faster than most clones and learn from training exercises. They would remember to suspect a hidden hatchet now.

"It has been most helpful recently sir… I've never had trouble wielding it."

"I see… I'll have the weapon issued to you in your file."

Cassus's eyes when wide behind his helmet, "Thank you sir."

"I suppose it can't hurt to allow you a nonstandard weapon, especially since I watched you wield Master Salk's lightsabre I can tell you possess a talent for battle."

"Thank you sir." Cassus put the hatchet back under his Kama and moved to exit the training room when Windu spoke up again.

"You don't like me very much do you trooper?"

Cassus stopped and turned, "Permission to speak freely sir?"

"Granted" he said.

Cassus felt like mentioning the troopers he was leaving to die on that station, of his resentment towards him for killing Jango, his animosity to the Republics enslavement of clones. But he swallowed his feelings and answered him.

"If it is fine with you I'd like to keep my personal feelings to myself unless you feel it will interfere with my objectives… which it won't."

"Verry well...l see that it doesn't." he said and let him walk out of the training room leaving the jedi alone to practice.

**Two chapters on one day please read both and review review review I already have a sequel story after this one and what you people say will help determine what I write. Your opinions matter and can determine what happens to a point.**


	15. AWOL

Cassus watched through the window as mechanic crew ran maintenance on the unloaded walkers. Their ship had landed on some backwater outpost. Cassus looked at the dry barren landscape around them flat and open the vegetation around them was all brown and dead and he wondered why anyone would want to be in a place like this.

He looked into the half empty glass of whiskey. He was enjoying his off time at cantina that had been set up in the outpost. A cantina is hardly what he would call it. The owner was a local miner who had dug a ditch and set a few tables and a bar under a tarp to keep the sun out. The miner was able to get a few credits from the non-clone officers as well as a few clones whose tabs were paid for by the Republic so they could relax without causing mischief. He puffed on his cigar and looked around the cantina; a few lower ranking officers were gathered at a table sharing a pitcher of beer while a squad of clones walked in laughing and happy to be off duty.

He turned back to the bar and watched the bartender wash a glass, he always preferred a real bartender in the cantinas he visited, having a droid pour his whiskey made him uneasy and more than once he tossed the drink always his nerves telling him it was poisoned. They never where but he preferred to waist whiskey because he was healthy in paranoia over being careless and thirsty.

"Hey can we get a few pitchers of beer over here the Republics paying." A clone was leaning against the bar eager to bring over some drinks for his brothers.

He turned to Cassus a smile on his face, "Hey where did you get that?" he asked eyeing his cigar. Cassus didn't answer and continued to sip his whiskey and take puffs from his smoke as the bartender filled the pitchers.

"Give me a few puffs." He said making a grab at the cigar, Cassus swatted his hand away rather violently the sound of their armor clashing sounded around the bar causing heads to turn. "Back off." He said standing tall to the clone. He was young and hadn't even finished growing, his armor still shiny. His brown eyes looked up and down his armor seeing the ARC trooper symbols and emblems and modifications. He gave him a stupid grin and reached his hand out again for the cigar this time rather violently. Cassus dodged the grab and ducked as the trooper gave him a right hook. He grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm back subduing him. He whirled around with the clone using him as a shield as a chair was swung at him the wood shattered against the clone's armor. Cassus dropped the hurt clone and looked to the rest of the squad that stood ready to fight him.

"Back off" he growled taking the cigar out of his lips and putting it on the bar; he picked up his helmet and quickly put it on ready for anything they could throw at him, "I don't want to hurt anymore of you."

The one who used the chair charged him; he sidestepped the attack and slammed his helmetless head down into the bar his face smashed against his whiskey glass sending glass and alcohol into his flesh causing him to scream in agony?

"Stop this behavior at once!" shouted one of the officers from the table standing and Cassus saw he had drawn his pistol.

"General!" they said in unison standing to face him at attention.

"That's Brigadier General Manson to you lot. And might I inquire why you are assaulting this soldier?"

"He was roughing up our squad leader sir… he's the one bleeding on the bar."

The general looked over to the moaning trooper on the ground shards of glass embedded into his face he was shaking with pain on the ground as his cuts stung with the alcohol.

"I recall this man trying to forcefully take a cigar from this soldier, one he had been smoking for a long while; the leaves were grown on Concord Dawn if my nose serves me right."

Everyone was silent and kept their places at attention.

"Well don't just stand there get the man to a medical droid, well discuss punishments later." The general turned to Cassus and looked him up and down. "Bartender give this soldier another drink. I didn't think anyone could make that ugly bastards face look pretty." He laughed and turned to the bartender who was pouring the whiskey while one of his employees cleaned up the blood and glass and wasted whiskey.

"Don't bother with the whiskey trooper you're coming with me." Tara stepped under the tarp into the cantina.

"Madam jedi if I may this man is only guilty of defending his property, the other officers here can stand with me on this."

Tara smiled at him, "Thank you for your input general I'm sure you and your officers have plenty to say but sergeant Cassus is under my command and it is for me to determine how he is to be treated for these actions today. Come with me Alpha-84, and leave the cigar."

Cassus sighed and looked at the smoking cigar on the table. General Manson picked up the stogie and the glass of whiskey that was meant for Cassus.

"Don't worry your leaving it in appreciative hands." Cassus sighed and walked off behind Tara his thoughts left behind on the smoke and whiskey he left behind.

…

Tara weaved around the landed fights and various other transports with Cassus in tow. She stopped behind a walker's leg and turned to face him.

"What do you need?" she asked.

"Ma'am?" he asked looking at her through the visor.

"You think I care that you slammed that asshole's face into a glass, I need you… those troopers at that station need you. You have your M5 do you need anything else?"

"You're crazy… there no way I can do this, you heard Windu as did I."

"Those men will die if we don't help then, you said it yourself they can hold out in their position."

"They can" explained Cassus, "But if we do this you'll be expelled from the order and I'll be shot for treason."

A sly grim crossed the jedi's thin red lips, "Not if you're a weak minded fool." She said raising her hand. "You're coming with me to take back that station."

Cassus didn't feel her presence push into his mind and knew she wasn't truly trying to play one of her jedi mind tricks on him.

He stayed silent and looked at her through the visor of his helmet. "I'm going to be expelled from the order Cassus." She explained, "I don't care, and even if they don't expel me I'm leaving the order regardless of what happens. But if you're going to get out of this alive then you're going to tell everyone that you were under my influence and I'm going to say the same thing to protect you Cassus. If I do this I'll be expelled… but you… you be killed if you do this."

"I could just report you and not do this at all." He said looking over his shoulder to check his six.

"I know you won't do that Cassus." She said a smirk curling her lip.

"Because?" he asked raising his eyebrow under his helmet.

"Because you think you love me."

"I think a lot of thing Tara."

"I think I love you too." She whispered through a grin.

Cassus stood still in surprise and was glad his face was hidden from her. "You could be saying that just to get me to go along with you."

"I'd try the mind trick first." She chuckled.

"I'm not a weak minded fool."

"I know." She said, "So will you come with me?"

He paused and took several long second to think, he felt stupid for considering this, ignoring every sense of danger he possessed. He had been ready to face this challenge seventeen hours earlier, but he had thought then he'd be facing it with squad of clones and fighters behind him, he'd have to improvise.

"Yeah… I'll go with you."

….

Cassus watched as the sky turned black, their hijacked shuttle was quickly leaving the planet's atmosphere. Cassus spoke on the comm telling the nearby ships they were on a supply route bringing up arms and ammunition to one of the many ships on orbit. The Star Destroyer was keeping them on hold trying to confirm the sudden ship trying to dock in their hanger bay, Cassus made his responses short and hallow try to sound like his mind was being manipulated by Tara's jedi tricks playing along with her scheme.

As the ships confused crew tried to confirm their presence Tara punched in the coordinates in the navigation computer and made the jump to hyperspace. Cassus sighed and slumped back into his chair trying to wrap his head around what they were doing.

"No going back now." She said, "Any regrets?"

"Only a squad of fighters and twenty clones with us. Other than that… no none."

"None?" she asked fully serious.

"Well… you made me leave behind a good cigar and some decent whiskey."

She laughed and looked at him a smile on her lips. "Take off your helmet." She ordered him.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I told you too, that's why." She said unable to suppress her grin.

"Since we are both A.W.O.L. you no longer carry any command over me ma'am… there is no rank with deserters."

She pouted her lower lips jutting out and her cheeks puffed out. "I want to see your face." She said.

Cassus sighed and quickly whipped the smile from his face as he pulled off his white and green helmet. Her eyes looked over his face and spotted the black and red mark tattooed under his left eye. He had gotten it while he was in the outpost; the black symbol of the Mythosaur was under his eyes outlined in red. Tara stood and moved over to her, she raised her hand out to touch his face and he caught her green fingers inches from his marked skin.

"Are… are you a?" she whispered, to him her gaze turned down to the ships floor embarrassed by her own boldness.

He knew the word she was going to speak. "Yes… I'm a mandalorian." He whispered, "Burnsk… he… made me his son."

His gloved hand brushed her head tail and she sighed erotically at the touch, and he released her fingers allowing them to brush over the raw skin of his newly formed tattoo over the unshaved stubble he was allowing to grow out and the shaved areas smooth where the razor had done its work. Her cool fingers brushed over the white scar Fett had given him in his training. He pulled the armored glove off and stroked her lekku with his bare hands enjoying her pleasurable sighs. He pinched her cheek and brought her lips to his.

Her arms wrapped around his large frame only further bulked by his armor, her ran her fingers over his short cut mohawk. She melted into his arms as they held her small frame his large hands; he opened her mouth inviting him to explore her even more. He continued to stroke her lekku with his ungloved hand exciting her even more. He broke the kiss and moved down to her throat. She gasped in rapture and ran her hands onto the plates of his armor; she moved to remove his armored belt and kama. She wanted to get rid of this infernal armor, it wasn't fair. His still armored glove had found its way under her robes and shirt; she pulled away as the cold metal touched her.

"Can you please do away with the metal skin?" she asked getting a smug smirk out of him.

He pulled away the armored glove and set it neatly aside. He cupped her cheek with his now bare hand and stroked her face with a callused thumb. "Are you sure you want to go any further?"

She giggled in that almost childlike way she did sometimes sounding like her young and lively self. "I'm the one trying to get your armor off."

She took his hand and laced her fingers with his and moved to the back of the shuttle to the sleeping quarters. She pushed him onto the small single bed; he pulled off his pauldron and then his chest plate. He set the armor aside neatly at the food of the small bed. Tara shed the robes and moved to remove her shirt and bra. He watched as she bared her skin to him looking up and down at the olive green display. He loved her green skin, found something about to be enticing. He pulled her in and kissed her navel. He stroked her soft green skin and moved up moving onto and past her breasts her collar and back to her face. He pulled her onto the bed and moved over her. This was going to be difficult the bed was only made to fit one.

…..

Cassus felt the woman breath against him, tired and asleep. He had lit a cigar as she lay against him her head against his chest. He stroked her lekku and tried thinking about what he was doing. It would be about eight hours until they reached their destination. Cassus puffed his smoke and wondered what this would lead to. Tara was prepared to be expelled from the order but Cassus had no future with anyone outside of the military, Tara leaving the jedi order would lead them away from each other, farther than ever. If her plan to keep him out of trouble worked and they believed he was manipulated by her jedi abilities he could only expect to continue his forced service in the Grand Army.

"I thought you'd be asleep." She said looking up at him.

"The smoke bothering you?" he asked.

"No… it makes you smell like you." She smiled against him, "What are you thinking about?"

"Where this is going to lead us. You know were going to be separated, even if we get out of this alive, you're going to out of the army and I'm going to be either executed or put back on some backwater planted to scrap droids."

She sat up and kissed his chest, "Cassus… I won't let this war tear us apart… I want you… to run with me."

Cassus sighed and took a puff, "I can't do that Tara."

"I know it's not perfect, Cassus… but this is the only way you'll be free, even if it means you will be a fugitive."

"I'm not going to quit the army Tara."

"You don't owe the Republic anything Cassus, you've already done enough… done more than they had a right to make you do."

"Your right… they have no right. And I have no desire to fight their war… but I owe it to my brothers who died trying to protect me, and the brothers I can save. The Republic is going to have me for this war… not one more."

"So I can't be with you until after the war?"

"Yes." He said stroking her lekku, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be… I can deal with that, we'll be together… after the war, you once told me you had nothing to do after the war."

He chuckled and kissed her forehead, "Burnsk had a wife and two kids on Concord Dawn… I think I should meet them… I'm a Tal'sung now and I think I can have a life there."

She grinned and kissed him, "Then its agreed… after the war we're going to Concord Dawn."


End file.
